Etna Excursion
Land

The island of Sicily is located in the centre of Mediterranean and, although only 3 kilometres (the Strait of Messina) separate it from the Italian peninsula, the island of Sicily looks completely different as regards both its magic and enchanting atmosphere and its ancient and rich culture. As a consequence of its strategic position in the Mediterranean - midway between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal - in the course of ages Sicily has been invade and conquered by the most rich and powerful people belonging to the western civilisation. These people sacked the island and made it the object of innumerable wars among the vary countries. On the other hand, thanks to these many civilisations Sicily is full of wonderful monuments and very interesting archaeological sites. In particular, you can admire and enjoy these Sicilian treasures in the cities of Palermo - one of the most enchanting city of Italy - Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento and Enna. But it is the wild vary landscape which, above all, fascinates the tourists. Mostly mountainous, the land of Sicily offers, in fact, spectacular, wild scenery thanks to its varied and picturesque coastline, its volcano and its mountainous chains. Its coastline is, partly, low, sandy and pebbles and partly high and rocky, and it is characterised by inviting coves and little beaches; this variety makes the Sicilian coastline one of the most beautiful of Italy.

The Mount Etna is the highest volcano in Europe and with its height of 3300 metres it characterises and dominates the western part of the island in a unique way. The volcano's irregular conic form witnesses the complexity of the constructive and destructive processes that Etna has, continuously, underwent in the course of ages. The volcano's activity has started 600.000 years ago and has been characterised by different phases, in the first period the volcano's activity was marked by a phase of magmatic differentiation and by a remarkable increase of the explosiveness. At the end of this period two stratum-volcanoes, the Mongibello and the Trifoglietto, originated and together with them many little volcanoes originated too. This activity has lasted till 8000 years ago, then a new prevalently effusive phase has started (young Mongibello). In its long story the volcano Etna has often modified its eruptive mechanism: in fact, its first eruptions were prevalently effusive, while the last phases of the old Mongibello's and Trifoglietto's activity have been explosive. Old Mongibello's activity was also characterised by a particular activity with mudflows. In the present phase, (young Mongibello), the lateral craters are characterised by effusive eruptions, while the highest craters (Chasm, New Mouth, North-east Crater, South-east Crater) have an explosive Strombolian activity. The volcano Etna is undoubtedly one of symbol of Sicily, but the mountainous chains of the Nebrodi, the Madonie, the Peloritani are the ideal places for enchanting excursions.

In fact, from the Nebrodi chain, the Simeto river and the Alcantara river - the most important rivers of Catania'territory - rise; and to be more precise the Simeto river rises from the south part of the Nebrodi and flows into the Ionic Sea to the south of Catania, while the Alcantara river flows into the Ionic Sea near the town of Taormina and its mouth marks the northern boundary of the province of Catania. Some of the inland routes draw a vivid, realistic, interesting picture of the old, authentic country life, which is almost disappeared both in Sicily and in Italy, nowadays. To visit Sicily every period is good, even if the best season is the spring, when the climate is mild and the vegetation has not been scorched by the sun. But if you visit the island in the summer you can enjoy of the long bathing season which starts in April and ends in November. Thanks to its mild climate you can visit Sicily also in winter, in fact the winter temperatures rarely get really cold especially along the coast.