excursion Archives

Mount Etna’s 1865 eruption from Sartorius Craters

Posted on 29/05/2023 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

Today the Sartorius Hills, or Sartorius Craters, are one of the many tourist destinations on the northern side of Mount Etna. Harmless black hills, surrounded by a wood of cheery birch, chestnut and oak trees, families go picnic here, and hikers test the strength of their legs as they climb each crater. But so much […]

Etna Spring Tourist Trip 3: Piano Fiera

Posted on 15/05/2023 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

You can spend a beautiful May Sunday, if you wish, at Piano Fiera, on the southern slope of Mount Etna. It is a few kilometers away from Adrano and Paternò, on the warmest and sunniest side of the volcano and yet this area also offers complete relaxation full of shade and coolness. And it allows […]

Celebrating Mother (Etna)’s Day

Posted on 08/05/2023 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

On the second Sunday of May, almost everywhere in the world, Mother’s Day is celebrated. And usually a mother is seen as a loving, sweet, kind, pretty figure. How could all of these tender qualities apply… to an active volcano? Yet it is so. For the people of Catania and its surroundings, the volcano Mount […]

Labour Day at Murazzo Rotto of Randazzo

Posted on 30/04/2023 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

Perhaps not everyone knows that Sicily, for a short period of its history, had independence aims that have recently returned to the fore. To calm those aims, the island obtained a special statute that binds it to Italy in an almost federal way. The few who believed in the dream of independence fought even bloody […]

Pedara, a volcanic land of Gods

Posted on 24/04/2023 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

The legend – perhaps linked to a story so ancient as to have been lost – tells that the place where Pedara stands today was dedicated to Jupiter, the father of all the gods. And he was celebrated by a magnificent temple, an “ara” which was impossible not to admire. The lands “at the foot […]