Private Etna from Taormina: a Family Winery, a Sommelier and Four Glasses

Private means the car has your party in it and nobody else, and it is air-conditioned, which matters on the drive up in summer. Pick-up is at your accommodation, the port or the train station in Taormina, Giardini Naxos, Letojanni or nearby. The road up goes through mountain villages, past orange and lemon plantations, olive and almond trees, and houses and churches built out of lava stone, which is the local building material because it is what the ground provides. The guide covers how the volcano was formed, its eruptions, and the culture, myths and folklore around "Mamma Etna". At Zafferana Etnea there is a honey store, with honey, olive oil, olives, wines and liqueurs to taste. Higher up the car reaches Rifugio Sapienza at 2,000 metres, where the Silvestri Craters are, along with shops selling objects made of lava and somewhere to get a coffee. From there the ascent to 3,000 metres by cable car and jeep with an authorised Alpine guide is optional. Tours that start in Messina go to the Sartorius Craters instead. The winery is family run. The visit takes in the estate, the vines and the cellars, with a sommelier on the winemaking and on the family's own history. Lunch is local cheeses, salami, prosciutto, fresh bread, olives, home-made olive oil and a traditional pasta dish, with four glasses of Etna red and white poured by the sommelier. Bring closed-toe shoes and something warm, plus a windbreaker or rain jacket. The weather at 2,000 metres does not consult the forecast for the coast.