{"id":2338,"date":"2016-05-02T09:27:03","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2338"},"modified":"2016-05-02T09:36:43","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:36:43","slug":"volcanic-mount-etna-sicilys-legendary-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2338","title":{"rendered":"Volcanic Mount Etna & Sicily’s Legendary Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"
We visited Mount Etna on Saturday on our way to Taormina.\u00a0 Mount Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe.\u00a0 Viewing it from the freeway,\u00a0 it truly dominates the landscape of eastern Sicily.\u00a0 We were very lucky, the mountain had had clouds at the top for a number of days but as we got closer, the high clouds disappeared and left the peak clear and cold.\u00a0 As we started our ascent to the Mount Etna gondola by car around twists, turns and hairpin curves, it felt like we were on another planet.\u00a0 The environment shares the same rugged, ugly and treeless appearance as the Calbuco Volcano we visited in the lakes district of Patagonia, Chile.\u00a0 Once again, like Calbuco,\u00a0 both\u00a0are home to active\u00a0ski resorts – a big shocker that a ski area exists on a very active volcano\u00a0in Sicily.<\/div>\n
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Traveling up the mountain, we finally arrived at a parking area with loads of touristy nick-nack shops, a few restaurants and a gondola.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we arrived too late to trek any of the mountain, so we opted for the gondola plus a special massive jeep-truck ride and tour after the gondola ride.\u00a0 The old and slow gondola only took us partially up Mount Etna to about 7,000 feet.\u00a0 It was a very pricey $145 adventure as there were about 75 people with only one guide for about a 45-minute tour at 9,000 feet. \u00a0One can make the 5 1\/2 hour round-trip hike further up to the edge of the active crater at the peak (11,000 feet)\u00a0\u00a0if you hire a private guide and leave early in the morning.\u00a0 We got lucky and actually experienced a loud burst of yellow\u00a0sulfur\u00a0clouds spewing out of one of the craters at the very top. \u00a0Our guided tour was at one of the craters that\u00a0was created in the 2002 eruption.<\/div>\n
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We were surprised to discover that the most recent and apparently, quite spectacular eruption occurred December 3, 2015 – just 5 months ago!\u00a0 It had sent plumes of fire and ash into the sky, almost a mile high.\u00a0 Our guide told us that the eruption caused the closure of the nearest airport and left several villages covered in a layer of thick ash. \u00a0Due to this recent eruption, the entire mountain was covered with volcanic ash & pumice\u00a0with the snow underneath.\u00a0 \u00a0As a result, we were told that trekking the mountain was quite challenging due to all the loose rock.\u00a0 The hikers that we did see trekking up and down the mountain were going at a very slow pace.\u00a0 Some were trekking the 2000 vertical feet from the gondola to our tour location. \u00a0We had considered that hike but it was probably good we did not undertake it as we watched a few hikers sliding down the mountain.<\/div>\n
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Then off to Taormina, Sicily’s favorite resort destination.<\/div>\n
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\n
\"You<\/a>
You can see forever (if it isn’t cloudy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A little hazy & cloudy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Beautiful<\/a>
Beautiful landscape around the gondola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"More<\/a>
Recent loud sulfur explosion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The bus road to 9,000 feet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lesley<\/a>
Lesley was standing on 5 month old pumice (covering the December snow)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of two craters that erupted in 2002<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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We visited Mount Etna on Saturday on our way to Taormina.\u00a0 Mount Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe.\u00a0 Viewing it from the freeway,\u00a0 it truly dominates the landscape of eastern Sicily.\u00a0 We were very lucky, the mountain had had clouds at the top for a number of days but as we got closer, … Continue reading Volcanic Mount Etna & Sicily’s Legendary Resort<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-BI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2338"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2371,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions\/2371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}