Etna Morning with Etnavic: the 1991-93 Lava Front and a Free Farm Tasting

A morning on the mountain with three possible pick-up points, which is the practical detail that decides whether this tour suits you: Catania itself, San Giovanni la Punta for anyone driving in from Syracuse, Taormina, Messina or Palermo, and Trecastagni for people staying up in the Etna villages. The drive out runs along the Catania seafront, with the stacks of Acitrezza standing offshore. Those are pillow lava. On the mountain the walking is easy and suits anyone: a circuit around one of the craters left by the 1892 eruption, at 2,000 metres. A lava tube follows, with helmets and torches provided, and there is a break at a viewpoint over the volcanic basin of the Valle del Bove. The last stop before the return is the furthest front of the 1991-93 lava flow, the one that reached Zafferana Etnea, and then a local farm where the tasting of honey, olive oil, pesto, wine and liqueurs costs nothing.