Winter trekking on Mount Etna

Ready for an unforgettable trekking experience on Europe's highest active volcano?

After a short briefing with your guide, you will start together from Rifugio Sapienza (1910mt).

The first part of the route will be on the slope and sandy ground on which we will walk, skirting an amazing area populated by a pine forest of black larch and rich endemic vegetation, such as saponaria, Etna violet, low shrubs that in winter lose their color but not their morphology.

In this first part, we can enjoy a breathtaking view from the Gulf of Catania to the Ionian Sea.
As we continue walking, we will see the active summit craters with the southeast crater in the foreground, which on several occasions during 2021 and early 2022 gave rise to a series of very intense eruptive events, with Strombolian activity and lava flows that drastically changed the morphology of the crater.

We will arrive on the south face of the magnificent Valle del Bove, the huge basin that contains lava flows from the most important and recent eruptions. This valley is 10 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, forming a dike against eruptions by allowing lava to flow out and thus keeping it away from population centers. The area is also particularly important for volcanologists, who can thus observe the progress of the eruptions and, at the same time, constitute a kind of open-air museum of Mount Etna.

After a stop, we will continue in a westerly direction until we reach the eruptive fracture that opened at an altitude of 2100 meters in the year 2001. Immediately after, we will continue in the direction of the Silvestri (upper) craters and return to the starting point.

Start time: 9:30 am
Duration: about 4h

Tour suitable for adults and children. The excursion is absolutely forbidden for heart patients, asthmatics and hypertensives.

If you prefer, you can request the pick-up service at your accommodation in Catania by selecting the service during the booking process.

Etna is spectacular even during winter, don't miss this opportunity!