volcano Archives

A walk in the Valley del Bove

Posted on 28/09/2020 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

Valle del Bove means the “valley of the ox” but nobody knows the origin of this name. This valley is a great depression on the eastern flank of Mt Etna. It opened maybe 64.000 years ago, after the collapsing of the ancient craters – so called “Trifoglietto system” – due to the subsidence of the […]

Giants of Mt Etna, stories of big trees

Posted on 07/09/2020 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

There are giants, on Mt Etna. Big, large beings leaving you breathless for their beauty and elegance. Do not be scared … they are not aliens! They are plants. Trees, to be exact. The giants of Etna are wonderful age-old trees that, from their nest in the woods, have seen armies, kings, events pass by. […]

Etna Wineries, home to great wine

Posted on 27/07/2020 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

It is not a casuality if Mount Etna is the home to great Sicilian wines. It is a volcano, in fact, and this matters. Especially when you cultivate vines. The lavic soil is rich of nutrients and the grapes take them all. This is the element – together with the special local climate – that […]

Etna and Stromboli, which connection?

Posted on 20/07/2020 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

Tourists ask it all the time. Local people are almost sure of that. Etna and Stromboli must be connected. Maybe by a thin, underground and lava-red thread! It must be so, because their explosions and eruptions are often concurrently. One calls, the other answers back. Like an echo. This fact is quite funny, but the […]

Church of Campanarazzu, Misterbianco

Posted on 13/07/2020 (23/02/2025) by Grazia Musumeci

Campanarazzu is the third step of our itinerary. This is another church buried by the lava of Mt Etna. It is in Misterbianco, south-west of Catania. Seen from here, Etna seems far away, but it has left traces on this land as well. It happened in 1669, during the side eruption of Montirossi Craters, a […]