MOUNT ETNA, CATANIA PROVINCE

Mount Etna, to the northwest of Catania, is the highest volcano in Europe (c. 3350m) and one of the largest and most active in the world. Its regional park protects 59,000 hectares of unique geology, flora and fauna, villages and farms, and traditional methods of forestry, bee-keeping, wine manufacture, stonework and carpentery. The ascent of Etna is easy and is an experience which should not be missed, not only for the volcanic phenomena but also foor the superb views. The extent of a visit is always subject to current volcanic activity, and visibility is determined by cloud conditions (which tend to build up in the course of the day) and the direction of the smoke from the main craters. There are splendid views of the lava fields on the approach roads to Rifugio Sapienza and Piano Provenzana, the two straight-points for the ascent. Higher up it is often possible to see smoking and gaseous fissures, and explosions from the main craters, of which there are four - it is not permitted to approach these. There may be a strong smell of sulphur patches. The view, beyond the mountain's hundreds of subsidiary cones and craters, can extend across the whole of Sicily, the Aeolian Island and Calabria. The spectacle is unique owing to the enormous difference in height between Etna and the surrounding hills.

Etna's circular cone is 45km in diameter at the base. From a distance it appears almost perfectly regular in shape and the great width of its base detracts from its height. But the terminal cone, with its four open summot craters, rises from a truncated cone 2801m high, on the sides of which are about 300 side craters. The smaller craters are often arranged along a regular line of fracture, and are thus called 'button formations'.

On the northeast side is the Valle del Bove, an immense caldera 19km in circumference, bounded on three sides by sheer walls of tufa and lava, in palces 900m high; it formed about 20,000 years ago, when the crater known as Trifoglietto subsided. During recent eruptions the lava has been flowing into this huge natural reservoir, thus sparing the towns on the southeast slopes.