Etna North Volcanological Trek: Inside an Intact Cone, Craters Back to 1614

Etna nord-Piano Provenzana, Via Provenzana, Linguaglossa

The meeting point is in the car park by the chairlift that runs at Etna Nord in winter. Look for the second of the four buildings there. It is the "Chiosco Bar Mareneve", not the "Chiosco Bar Etna Nord".

Piano Provenzana

Piano Provenzana is the northern tourist station of Etna, and you reach it with your own car. It is less crowded than the southern slope, and the access road runs where dense forest meets the bare lava of recent eruptions. At 1,800 m there are small souvenir shops, cafés, restrooms, and the departure area for the authorised 4x4 vehicles. Parking is paid, in the blue-striped spaces. Beyond this point you can only continue with licensed guides, on vehicles approved by the park and the municipality. In winter the same place is a ski station. This ground sits inside the lava field of the 27 October 2002 eruption, which destroyed the tourist facilities that stood here: restaurants, hotels, ski lifts and trails. Excursions from here climb from 1,800 m to about 2,860 m, at the Etna Nord Volcanological Observatory.

Costo extra

Itinerario Crateri Sommitali

The tour starts on the panoramic road up the north slope, which only authorised 4x4 vehicles may use. The guide meets you at Piano Provenzana, 1,800 m, for a short briefing. The drive crosses the woods and the wide lava fields of the 27 October 2002 eruption, where the ruins of the old tourist station still come through the surface, including the half-buried roof of a hotel. The guide covers the volcano's history on the way and takes questions. The road passes craters more than 40 m deep, eruptive fractures and wide summit lava flows. Pioneer plants have taken hold on the new rock, and INGV monitoring stations stand out on ground where nothing else does. The route ends at Piano delle Concazze, 2,860 m, next to the Etna Nord Volcanological Observatory. On a clear day the view runs from Catania to Syracuse, across the Nebrodi, the Peloritani and the Madonie, out to the Aeolian Islands and over to Calabria, with the summit craters steaming above.

Mount Etna

The wild north flank of Etna, on a route that used to be for researchers and is now walked with certified volcanologists. From Piano Provenzana, 1,800 m, reached by paved road, the authorised 4x4 vehicles take the panoramic north road, crossing forest and the lava fields of the 27 October 2002 eruption, past the ruins of the old tourist station and the half-buried hotel roof. They climb to about 3,000 m, the highest point allowed when the summit is closed, with the active craters fuming overhead. The hike is around 7 km, so good fitness matters. It crosses a plateau of fresh lava and ash, taking in craters from 2002, 1911, 1923, 1874, 1879, 1809, 1646, 1614 and 1624, the north-flank fault, ancient lava tubes and pioneer plants. The view reaches the Aeolian Islands, the Nebrodi, the Peloritani, the Madonie, Calabria, and the east coast of Sicily from Catania to Syracuse. The descent goes down sandy channels and through forest, back to Piano Provenzana.

Piano Provenzana

Back at Piano Provenzana at the end of the day, with the pine forest on one side and the lava field on the other. There are souvenir shops, cafés and bars for a coffee or something to eat, and places to refill a water bottle. The blue-lined parking areas take cars and camper vans. The October 2002 eruption is the reason this station looks the way it does: it destroyed what stood here and left the ground you have just spent the day walking on. Of the Etna stations this is the quiet one, and after several hours on the north flank the difference from the southern side is easier to judge.