Two Etna Wineries and a Sicilian Lunch: Zafferana Honey, Three DOC Wines

Two wineries in one day, and no hiking. This is a wine day on the volcano rather than a volcano day with wine at the end. Pick-up is at 9:00 from your hotel in Catania or from an agreed meeting point, in an 8-seater vehicle, which keeps the group small enough to fit in one cellar at a time. The first stop is Zafferana Etnea. Lava has reached the town more than once, and it has become the Sicilian capital of honey. A local farm there gives you honey, creams and marmalades to taste. At around 11:00 or 11:30 comes the first winery, with the Etna wine tasting and an aperitif of local products, then a walk through the vineyards to see how the fruit is grown. The second winery does lunch: antipasto, primo and secondo, paired with three Etna DOC wines, one white and two reds. Its vineyards get visited after the meal rather than before, with oenologists or sommeliers explaining the natural wine side of it. A tasting at one cellar and three paired wines at the other means the day covers both reds and a white, which is more of the Etna range than a single visit usually pours.