X-mas at Mount Etna

We celebrated Christmas time at Sicily and also visited Mount Etna. This active volcano, one of the largest in Europe with 3300 meters, is impressive to see! Our catamaran was in the harbor of Porto dell'Etna for 5 days (23-28 December 2023) so we had constant view of the volcano. It has 5 craters and we saw smoke coming out of the craters. 'That's normal', an inhabitant told us: 'Smoke at the top is daily. When there is no smoke, that's when you have to watch out! Because then a 'chimney' collapsed inside the tube and pressure of the gas starts building up which may lead to an eruption'. We rented a car, and on 24. December we drove up the south slope of the mountain to 1900 meters and admired the landscape with colors of yellow, red and green. And snow on top at this time of year! It was 20 degrees, sunny and no clouds (except for the plume of smoke ;). We booked an excursion with quads and drove 2 hours on the black lunar landscape and the guide showed us an old lava tunnel. We walked up the crater Silvestri, which has been formed long ago and was interesting to see. I was very happy to celebrate X-mas on this special location and enjoyed the impressive nature a lot!