Mountains Magic Life

The final adventure of our trip - the one that brought us to Sicily - was a guided hike up Mount Etna. At the base camp, it was gearing up to be another beautiful day. From there, we took a van up to about 9500’ and then started hiking. We gained approximately 1500’ in 1.75 miles (the north rim of Mount Etna is 11,155’).

It was a steep hike at a relatively quick pace. Because of the lava rock and ash, it’s not a hard packed trail, so you had to pay close attention to the footing. The wind was constant, with gusts that tried to knock you over. And about 2/3 of the way the clouds/steam/ash kept swirling and obstructing the view of the volcano rim. Eventually our guide decided that the conditions were too dangerous to finish our hike to the north rim so we had to turn around, knowing that we were so very close.

The next day, as we were flying out of Catania, I had a couple of perfect views of that volcano…

Before leaving Ortigia, we decided to tour Castello Maniace. We were the first people in for the day, so we had the place to ourselves for a little while and were able to take the time to appreciate the beautiful stonework.

We stayed in Ortigia for a couple of nights. Wonderful pastries and coffee, the fortress lit up every night, a lively appetitive and dining scene, and some of the coolest hidden alleyways and courtyards…