Spoiler alert – no one had to be sacrificed. And I really should call this Jim and Jan see Mt Etna, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it, so …

The weather has been sunny and warm since we arrived in Catania, but today that changed.

It didn’t rain, but it was cloudy, cool, and breezy as we started our tour. We usually think of volcanoes as a perfect cone, like Mt Fuji, but Etna isn’t like that. Most activity is from “lateral eruptions” meaning that smaller craters can appear in a wide area around the central cone. We visited the site of one such eruption for our first stop.

The lava flowed down the mountain toward a large town as the government and the military tried to divert it. Nothing worked. Fortunately it stopped just short of the city. So of course, it was declared a miracle. This house narrowly avoided the lava.

On the other hand, this small hut was overrun by the lava.

We learned about the different types of rock that forms during an eruption. As the lava flows, the lighter rock floats to the top and cools first, creating small boulders with sharp edges. The black “sand” between the rocks is the ash that falls with every eruption, coating everything – houses, cars, streets. And deeper down, the lava cools slower and creates basalt. You can see the layers in this photo.

The basalt is very hard and is used in everything in this area. Here it is used in a road.

Sometimes as the surface cools and hardens, the lava underneath keeps flowing and will eventually escape lower down the mountain, leaving behind hollow “lava tubes”. We toured one today. It was large enough that you could walk upright … most of the time. But some places were lower, so we had to wear helmets. Good thing too, because I whacked my head within the first minute.

The entrance did not inspire confidence.

But once we were inside, it was larger, and very interesting. It continued underground for over 200 meters. We made it all the way to the end.

One of the more fascinating aspect of the tour was seeing how nature works to reclaim the areas lost to the eruptions. We saw evidence of this in the lava tube, with tree roots pushing through the rock.

We also saw lots of evidence of plants returning to the landscape above, later in our tour.

After lunch we went for a walk through the lava fields for an hour or so. We followed the path to the crater that was left after the eruption that almost claimed the nearby town.

And when we reached the crater, Luca, our guide, offered to take our picture to prove we had been there. He photobombed the picture to prove that he had been here as well.

The rock and the ash have a high iron content. To illustrate just how much iron it has, I placed my phone on the sand, and the magnetic charging ring picked up a thick ring of ash.

When it is clear on the mountain, you have excellent views of Catania. We didn’t have that today, but the cloud had its own mystique, creating an alien landscape, with hills and people coming into view, through the mist.

To give you an idea of how variable the cloud/mist was, here are two pictures taken within a minute of each other. In the first, you can clearly see people hiking up the path around another crater.

And seconds later…

Before heading back down to the bus, Luca treated us to Zibibbo (a local dessert wine) and biscotti. You dunk the biscotti in the wine. Yummy, and warming, perfect for the day.

Then it was back to the bus and the ride into Catania, where we were ready for a nap. I’d definitely recommend a visit to Etna.