Etna and Alcantara Full Day: Houses Ringed by Lava, Sea to Summit

A full day with the guides, from the sea to the top, on how the volcano was formed and on the mythology that grew around it. The trekking crosses one of the slopes: ancient flows, ground with nothing growing on it, then thick woods a few hundred metres further on. Along the way there are houses with lava standing all around them, the flow having stopped where it stopped. Lava caves get explored, in safety, and there is a tasting of typical local products. Lunch is at a mountain hut. The afternoon is the Alcantara Gorges. They formed thousands of years ago when a lava flow ran into the bed of the Alcantara river. Very cold water met incandescent lava, and the rock fractured as it was quenched, which is why the walls stand in columns rather than in a smooth face. That collision is the reason the place looks the way it does.