ETNA AND ALCANTARA EXCURSION

From Catania: 01/04 to 31/10 – Every Tuesday / Friday
From Taormina: 01/04 to 31/10 – Every Thursday / Sunday

Description

Visit in one day the Alcantara River Park and the most evocative places of Mount Etna!

After the pick-up at your accommodation, you will head towards “Rifugio Sapienza”, making some stops along the way at particular points of interest. The guide will show you the latest volcanic activity and explain the Etna area so you can better learn the history of the volcano.

Once at Rifugio Sapienza (1,920 m a.s.l.) you can choose to:

• Walk with the guide along an Etna Park route, keeping the altitude reached (2,000 m).
• Choose the Etna high-altitude option: using the cable car service of the Etna Cableway, you will reach 2,504 m in about 15 minutes; from here, with special 4×4 off-road vehicles, in about 20 minutes you will reach the maximum altitudes allowed. You will be amazed by an incomparable landscape where you can see the South-East Crater, the majestic Central Crater and Etna’s more or less recent lava flows. Accompanied by Alpine Guides (Italian-English only), you will visit the areas where the volcano’s vitality emerges, in full compliance with regulations and in complete safety. You will return to Rifugio Sapienza by vehicle.

The excursion will continue with a visit to an Etna cave with helmets and torches.

The next stop will be at a family-run farm for a tasting of the volcano’s products (honey, oils, olives, wines…).

The tour will continue with the visit to the Alcantara River.

The Alcantara River excursion will let you discover many different aspects of this very special watercourse. Walking along small paths bordering cultivated fields, the so-called “delizi”, you reach the river course; from here you can see the Gurne, natural pools created by flowing water, small lakes and rushing waterfalls set in beautiful riparian vegetation. A walk through nature, history and traditions, where you can observe the ruins of the Castle of Francavilla.

The tour will end with a visit to the Gorges, canyons formed over millennia by the river’s waters flowing over Etna lava basalts. Here you can admire the columnar basalts, lava formations resulting from the erosion process and slow cooling, taking on extraordinary shapes of various thickness and orientation.

Recommended equipment

Windbreaker / Trainers or hiking shoes / Water / Hat and sunglasses.