Once on-board of our 4×4 jeeps, we will make our way towards Etna’s hill. We will leave the wonderful “Riviera dei limoni” (Lemons’ coast), to approach Etna’s villages. We will then get on the road that leads through the volcano’s slopes, crossing old mulattiere (ancient mule drivers’ roads) and coalmen paths, we are soon at about 1000 mt altitude where a protected area of 720km² begins. We also come across cold and dried lava flows that, like black highways, tear the mountainside. Surrounded by uncontaminated greenery¹, we can enjoy the view of chestnut trees, pines, oaks, beeches as well as endemic plants like Etna’s birch and Etna’s brooms2. Eruptive cones, lava flows, lava valley stand out in front of our eyes, testifying the volcano’s incessant eruption activity that carves out its own shape since more than 500.000 years. We will get into a fantastic Nature trail, inside the Etna Park, heading towards the craters. We will arrive on the top of a lateral crater, created by an eruption with the typical buttons’ line progress, called “bottoniera”. What is a crater? It is a pyroclastic slagheap that has been thrown out from the volcanic shaft and, once placed around the eruptive vent, creates a cone. Once we get to the edge of the lateral crater, in the exact point where incandescent lava used to come out from volcano slope, we will explain to you the features of Etna’s eruptions. You will have the opportunity to admire all of the different colours that lava turns into, as a beautiful reflection of a rainbow, and experience first hand all of the different kinds of consistency of pyroclastic rocks. We will be able to see very few plant species that manage to survive in very extreme conditions both in winter and summer. Let’s deeply penetrate in the heart of the wood to discover what’s hiding below the volcanic hard surface. Suddenly a crevice in the ground appears by our eyes: one of the about 190 Etna lava flow caves. We start our underground adventure: leaving the surface, we enter into the mountain deepness to discover its most hidden secrets, visiting a lava flow cave. After having explored the most interesting Etna area, we take a break enjoying a nice lunchtime in a typical mountain hut/chalet that seems to have landed here in Sicily directly from Alps. We can try traditional dishes of our Sicilian kitchen, delicious mountain specialities, since in Sicily we are lucky to have both exquisite seafood and delicious mountain food, typical from the inland areas.

Eruption of 2002, Honey tasting, typical products, liqueurs and "Fuoco dell'Etna" (liquor)

Coming down we come out from the protect area of the Etna Park and we go towards the Alcantara Valley. We meet the river for the first time near the Castiglione di Sicilia’s bridge and, from this moment, our path is intertwined with it until we reach the gorges. We leave the jeep and go down walking until we get the riverbed: we are now in the deepest point of Alcantara gorges, facing 25 meters tall basalt cliffs that proudly stand all around us. Here we can touch the icy water of Alcantara river and the bravest of us can even plunge in the water and venture for a few dozen meters inside the gorges.