Volcano! and Wine!

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Destination: Taormina

First up: fun with travel logistics - vans to our bus, with laughs over whose socks or t-shirts got mixed up or lost when the hotel returned our laundry. Some lost item pics on WhatsApp helped get socks back to their owners. The expression on Andrea's face when he heard one room had an actual washing machine was priceless. We know where he's staying when he brings the next tour group through!

We're safe in Allesandro's hands.
Sicily has its share of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Our next stop: the great volcano, Mount Etna.
 
Climbing the enormous mountain took some time. Etna is the tallest mountain in the Mediterranean, approximately 3 times as tall as Kilauea in Hawaii. We stopped to meet volcanologist Boris at Crateri Sylvestri, an old site of flank eruptions that took place over 6 months in 1892 on the South flank of the mountain.
The Mamma Etna concept:
Boris explained that all the major religious deities in Sicily are and have been female: Saints Rosalia (Palermo), Lucy (Syracuse), Agatha (Catania), and the Virgin Mary for everyone. In more ancient times, the Greek goddesses Hera, Athena, and Artemis were honored as much as much as or more than the male deities. Here before all of them was Etna, the mother of Sicily. From that point we started calling the mountain "Mamma."

Mount Etna has 4 major craters, and many more flank craters over a wide area.   
The latest eruptions started in February 2025 and continued until 11days ago, but none of them were strong. Flank eruptions can happen anywhere along the mountain, and sometimes pop out in inconvenient places. 

Most of the volcanic rock we saw was black and gray, but these deposits were really cool. 

Looking towards Mt. Etna's peak, we could only see clouds. Boris assured us, "If you think you're seeing the peak, it's not the peak."
The gondola towers going up the mountain have been damaged or destroyed but replaced many times. Mama Etna has many visitors and it's worth it.
Looking in the other direction, down into the valleys below, we could see mini mountains from previous flank eruptions over the years. 

Hiking around old craters is hungry work. Time for lunch and a winery tour! It was a short bus ride to Benanti Winery farther down the mountain.

Welcome!
Our Canadian hostess Charlotte explained the rosé we were about to taste.

Charlotte explained the traditional winemaking process used at Benanti, even up to the 1980s.
We learned about microclimates around Mount Etna...

...then headed outdoors to see the vineyard and gardens.

It was a stunningly beautiful day and setting.

Back inside for a "light lunch" and tasting more wines, starting with the white.
Tour friends Pat and Carole 
At some point one of the reds was poured.
Dave and Kathi shared our lunch table, too.
And these two!
We really enjoyed the winery tour and lunch. Everybody was in a great mood for the final ride to Taormina. 
Next post: adventures in Taormina. 

- Christine 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baking our way to Erice: the Road to Trapani - PART TWO

Image
Tuesday, March 20, 2025 (continued) As Alessandro expertly maneuvered our bus up the winding mountain road towards Erice, we looked back at an impressive view. But first, a lunch stop. We were going to experience true Sicilian hospitality at Maria's place. A simple country lunch. I tasted the almond (mandorla) wine. Definitely for dessert. After everyone ate their fill, it was time to learn the secrets of Maria's Pasticceria Grammatico. Michael was our British interpreter... ...while Maria showed us how to shape the traditional cookies. Maria's voice was incredibly quiet so we really couldn't understand her, Even if we could understand Italian, but Michael helped us out.  This book is the story of Maria's life and includes recipes. She was a nun who left the convent and started her own business making and selling cookies using the nuns' secret recipes. Sc...
Read more

Official tour time! Let’s jump right in!

Image
  On Sunday May 18, we met our Rick Steves group mid afternoon, along with our guide Andrea (pictured above).  I’m looking forward to having him as our guide because he was born and raised just outside Palermo.  I’m sure he will have a ton of knowledge.   After meeting everyone, we all took a walking tour around the neighborhood to get our bearings, learn the history and see unique things.  You can see Christine and I are fresh and ready to tour!  On the way to our first stop, we saw a fountain nicknamed “the fountain of shame”.  Legends say it got that name because in the  building in the background with the dome lived the monks, and a dome, not pictured, but in direct line of sight of the fountain and the monks dome, was the convent.  Of course, the statues are naked…thus the nickname.     We also saw a peaceful Pro Palestine parade march past us.  Our guide told us Sicily is fearful of war, since they have been occupied and ...
Read more

Taormina: Too Beautiful to Believe

Image
Monday, May 26, 2025 Taormina, Sicily  We entered lovely Taormina last evening. Andrea gave us a quick orientation to the town and then we had a free evening to stroll around or just gawk at the mountain.  The stairways do help make Taormina beautiful, but the real beauty is in the views, like this one from our room's balcony right after we checked in. Mamma Etna in her full glory! Mamma is cooking. See the steam? The town was full of lovely shops offering higher-end clothing, souvenirs, and of course - food! Here's a giant cannolo in a colorful display for us tourists. The Godfather is popular here. A very narrow stretto. Someone had a private little teatro di pupi next to their front door. Monday morning Before breakfast, we all spent some time admiring Mamma Etna from the rooftop. The rooftop views were actually beautiful in all directions. While waiti...
Read more