Mount Etna

After we escaped Villafranca - we took the bus to Catania, where we stayed for a few days and took a day trip to Mount Etna - an active volcano. On the bus ride up - you can see the remains from previous eruptions, where the lava overtook many buildings.

From the "gift shop area" we took a gondola ride up to the way-way top. (thanks mother!) On the way up you could see plants trying to grow in the sharp, violent landscape.

Etna is the highest volcano in Europe, and stands at 10,922 ft. Once we started walking we realized how quickly we ran out of breath at such a height. Some people payed for rides in Jeeps with giant wheels, but we decided to rough it.

We were hiking at cloud level. All of a sudden clouds would sweep across the landscape - and the temperature would drop to freezing. Visibility would drop to near zero - and it felt like we stepped into a horror movie. After a few minutes of hiking, we were completely alone on the mountain.

We hiked for an hour. A hiker informed is that unfortunately, the crater was closed... because it was active and spewing lava - however between clouds we saw what we thought was a steaming crater.

Mount Etna was an incredible experience. We didn't see any lava, or spewing fire - but we walked through a completely foreign world - where not a single plant lived, the ground was barren, black and sharp, and where it could go from clear, to freezing cold and almost no visibility in just a few minutes. What ended up chasing us down was a hail storm - the most intense hail storm I've ever been in - where the hail hurt if the pellets hit your bare skin.