When you’re in Catania, the looming presence of Mt. Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, is impossible to ignore. On our first walk through the city, our local guide pointed out areas that had been covered by lava at one time or another. The most destructive eruption occurred in 1669, when the lava flow buried the western part of Catania. The last major eruption was in 2003. The thought of living so close to a still-active volcano would make me uneasy, but it doesn’t seem to interfere with the daily lives of Catania’s residents.
It was a quiet Sunday morning in Catania when we split into groups and settled into Land Rovers for the drive to the volcano. In my car, Nick was at the wheel. A trained naturalist, he would also be our guide for the day. As if he were reading my mind, he told us that although Etna was once again erupting from a few of its vents, we would be in no danger. These explosions were what scientists call Strombolian explosions, in which the volcano spews incandescent cinders, puffs of ash and molten stones of various sizes, up into the air, sometimes up to a few hundred meters high.
I don’t know what I expected, but so much about Mount Etna surprised me. Before my visit, I had a very uninformed idea of what a volcano looked like. If I had to draw a picture, it would have been a simple upside cone with smooth sides, not all that large at the base, with thick gray smoke and red flames shooting out of the top.
As we approached Etna National Park, the sheer enormity of the legendary volcano took me by surprise – not only its height (over 3327 meters or 10,000 feet), but the size of its base (an area of approximately 1600 square kilometers or 600 square miles). The mountain is so tall and so big, in fact, that it encompasses three different ecological zones. The lowest zone, up to about 3000 feet, is where you’ll find almond trees, prickly pears, vineyards, olive trees, citrus groves and orchards, all typical of the Mediterranean. The middle zone, up to about 6500 feet, is forested with pine trees, birches, beeches, chestnut trees, and oaks. Above 6500 feet, the land is covered with ash, sand, and fragments of lava, and the vegetation is scarce.
Once we entered the park and started ascending the eastern side of the mountain, I was surprised to see that towns and villages were actually located right on the slope of the volcano. One of them, Zafferana, was nearly completely destroyed in a mid-19th century eruption. And as recently as 1992, lava arrived within a few kilometers of the town. Zafferana and the other towns within the park are surrounded by orchards and terraced vineyards bounded by extremely old dry stone walls. The area is known for its red wine, which get its distinctive flavor from the rich volcanic soil.
The drive from Catania to the northeast side of Etna took close to an hour. Our progress was slow because of the number of vehicles on the road. This was common in late October, the time of year when local families go out to gather chestnuts and mushrooms. Especially after yesterday’s rain, people were out scouting for porcini mushrooms. Indeed, as we drove through the wooded areas of the park, we saw numerous cars pulled over on both sides of the roadway and clusters of people walking under the trees, clutching plastic bags and scouring the ground for these seasonal delicacies.
As we made our way through the park, we passed lunar-like lava fields, great frozen seas of basalt (dark volcanic rock). Nick guessed these were left behind by an eruption from several years ago, probably 1971, since plant life, such as lichen, was already returning.
Later, we saw barren lava fields from the 2002-3 eruption. The lava produced by Etna’s eruptions has a high content of stones and is therefore almost black in color. Nick mentioned that recent lava flows from Etna were very slow moving, not like the quickly moving red hot lava flows that I’ve seen in photos of volcanoes in Hawaii.
At one point, we were up so high that we were driving through the clouds. When they cleared, the road was surrounded by birch trees.
Not long afterwards, we turned off-road for a jolting ride through a black pine forest. We asked about animals and Nick told us that few animals live in these woods due to the lack of available water for them to drink.
We got out of our vehicles at around 5000 feet (about halfway up the mountain) to get a closer look at the vegetation and noticed the yellow broom right away. According to Nick, this plant starts to grow before other species. He looked around and plucked a drumstick mushroom out of the rocky ground. Very poisonous, he warned us.
I picked up a piece of the black basalt rock from the ground and gently ran my fingertip over its rough surface. There was a small hill of basalt nearby. When I tried climbing it, I quickly found myself slipping as the crumbly stones shifted under my feet with every step.
You’ll notice from the photo how I was dressed for our exploration of Mt. Etna. Although I was comfortable wearing short sleeves in Catania, I was grateful for the several layers of clothing I wore on the day of our visit. The temperature quickly plummeted as we gained elevation. By the time we set out on a post-lunch hike on the northern side of the park, the temperature had dipped to about 50 degrees, i.e. at least 20 degrees cooler than in Catania.
Etna National Park is filled with miles of trails and paths that traverse the woods and follow steep ridges. In the midst of a magical landscape of white birches, golden broom, and ferns in fall colors, a group on horseback passed us on the leaf-strewn path. Several minutes later, we spotted them up ahead of us, making their way along the top of a tall ridge.
I’m glad our guides had provided us with walking sticks because as we continued on our hike, the path became much narrower, steeper, and rockier.
By the time we finally reached the top of the ridge, the wind was howling fiercely. With my feet planted firmly on the rocky ground, I stood at an elevation of close to 6000 feet and looked out with a feeling of satisfaction over the expansive landscape of craters. The sun was slipping behind a far-off ridge as we began our descent.
Massive, magnificent, mysterious – Mount Etna is all of these things.
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