Mount Etna

On Sunday there were nine of us that took a little trip to see the mountain. It was a beautiful fall day, so we lucked out. It’s been raining like crazy here, the day will start out nice and then in the afternoon it will pour until it gets dark. At least it’s exciting rain, sometimes we get some pretty wicked thunder and lighting.

Etna is still an active volcano, in fact, when I first arrived in Catania, it was erupting like crazy. From my balcony you could actually see the lava as it spewed out the top and oozed down the side.

In the winter it snows on Etna, so I knew that if I was going to see it up close I should go soon. It was pretty darn cold and windy when we arrived near the top. It reminded me of my trip to the volcano in Hawaii, only waayyy colder.

We went a little ways down and had lunch in the forest. I was surprised to see pine trees on Sicily. Combined with the cold weather I thought I was back in Oregon for a second. When we were heading back to our cars we saw the park ranger feeding a small wild animal. I am not really sure what it was, it looked like a fox, and it was beautiful to see up close and live. Normally I only see wild animals in museums or on TV.



This was my first weekend in Catania for almost a month. I was able to sleep in for the first time on Saturday since September. Next weekend I am going to Rome, then I am going to start planning some trips for November, hopefully leave the country soon!

Ahh, later that night I looked outside my window. Miss Etna is erupting again, it’s sooo cool lookin’. If you get a chance, try to find a good webcam of Etna, preferably at night. Nate told me the one linked to my site is not working.