The mountains in a wedding dress – Rosa Maria Di Natale

This article was published on April 9, 2022 on page 27 of number 22 of the Essential. You can subscribe here.

As soon as we arrive in eastern Sicily, it should be immediately clarified to children that Etna is female for its inhabitants. Then we can move on to geographic data, namely that it is a particularly active volcano, which is the highest in Europe and which in 2013 was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco for its scientific and cultural importance, given which has been studied for 2,700 years.

He can be told that for the people of Catania, whenthe Mountain she is covered by a blanket of snow, “wearing the wedding dress”. And explain that living on its slopes is at the same time a source of pride and anxiety for the inhabitants because, like any active volcano, it is a living organism, which can be your friend but also your enemy.

It is also nice to review with the little ones those classic myths necessary to better frame “the giantess”: for the Greeks, the goddess Etna, in whose entrails lived a dragon that breathed fire, was the daughter of Uranus and Gaea, the primeval divine couple to which the origin of the world was traced. For the Romans, however, the Mountain became the furnace of Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods. And you can dust off the memories of the Odyssey, given that at the foot of Etna Ulysses met the Cyclops Polyphemus. Finally, there are also the stories of Christian saints – one of all, Saint Agatha, the patron saint of Catania – who allegedly miraculously miraculoused entire territories by stopping the lava flows.

But, stories aside, it is also right to tell children how, despite its whims and eruptions, Etna is a kind of generous ancient mother. Wonderful pine forests grow on its extinct craters and the soils are rich in precious minerals. Here agriculture is a flagship and just look around to notice it.

The minimum of time to invest to allow large and small visitors to discover Etna is three days, although to really enjoy the explorations it would be better to aim for five days or even a week. Dressing in layers is essential, as is wearing boots and covering your arms and legs, to protect yourself from small but probable falls. Finally, we must know that the Etna Park Authority is the most important reference point for tourists. At this point you are ready to head to high altitude and embrace the sea and the mountains with a single glance.

The four active craters of Etna cannot be visited with children in tow. The trek on the central crater, at three thousand meters above sea level and with constant gaseous exhalations, is already challenging for adults. But from the age of twelve it is possible to visit the Barbagallo di Nicolosi craters, at 2,900 meters, which were formed with the 2002-2003 eruption, one of the most impressive in the recent history of Etna. To reach them you start from the famous Sapienza refuge, at an altitude of 1,910 meters, the highest point of arrival for cars and adjacent to the departure of the cable car.

The landscape of the Barbagallo craters is lunar: a very black desert of both coarse and fine ash, dotted with gullies where the lava has plowed its way leaving behind enormous walls. Here the Etna on the south side can be heard “muttering” through the still hot gas fumaroles (and it is to protect yourself from their fumes that you can find bandanas for sale everywhere). Let the children have fun digging among stones and pebbles: only here it is possible to touch the warmth of the earth. “When boys come I often conjure up Mordor, the dark land of Lord of the Rings, and they understand me straight away ”, says geologist Saro Calcagno, nature guide. “Fantasy materializes before their eyes and they never forget it”.

From the age of five it is possible to reach the Bove valley, in the municipality of Zafferana Etnea, by following the Pietracannone route but unfortunately avoiding the suggestive beech gully. It is a huge horseshoe-shaped depression that winds for a distance of about 10 kilometers. In winter, the risk of ice is high. The guides will help you to read the history of the Mountain and its eruptions through the layers of the valley walls.
The dikes, relics of tabular form of non-erupted magma that make up the landscape, are impossible to forget.

As for the animals, with a bit of luck along the paths you can meet foxes, buzzards or barn owl nests. The hares, on the other hand, go out in the evening. To observe other species of the place you can reach the Gurrida di Randazzo lake, along a path on the north-western side which is also an excellent possibility for disabled visitors. Here Etna can be seen at close range, with its two extinct cones, Monte Spanish and Monte Maletto, while, especially with the help of binoculars, it is easy to observe storks, herons and beautiful ducks in the surroundings. The route is flat, full of bicentennial vineyards, with many places perfect for a picnic.

From 1,500 meters upwards, the beech trees make their appearance, while, along the trekking itinerary up to the Sartorius mountains – children of a flow of 1865 and where life has recently returned to flourish – it is still possible to cross a birch forest Etna, a true botanical rarity, and then mosses and lichens set in the rocks, micro wonders of nature.

Children are often intrigued by the volcanic neviere, caves in which the snow of Etna, considered very precious, was kept for the summer months. The neviere were already used in the eleventh century: the thick black walls of lava acted as a screen against the heat and the snow became a block of ice to be preserved for the summer, when it would be used to prepare slushes and ice creams for the gentlemen.

For families who love group games and entertainers, the Etna adventure parks are a guarantee. The first difference between the various alternatives lies in the type of trees on which the routes and attractions are built. At the EtnAvventura Park in Ragalna – reachable on foot or by bike through expanses of woods and lava stone along the Italy path – the protagonist is the laricio pine. While the Monti Rossi Adventure Park, in Nicolosi, is set up among the black pines and oaks, on which simpler paths are built. The Scarbaglio di Milo park instead enchants with its holm oaks.

All offer routes and challenges for children even from the age of two, including carabiners, climbing walls, Tibetan bridges and pirate ships. But for those attracted to more traditional amusement parks, there is Etnaland. It is located in Belpasso, away from the paths of the mountain but still in the foothills, and it is a theme park with a water park, a prehistoric park and botanical paths.

Children will be amused to know that the grandparents of this region as children played with round berries with a sweet flavor, the fruits of Etna hackberry, which in dialect is called minicucco. The kernels of the berries were thrown at each other with straws or blowpipes. A majestic specimen of this tree is found in via Meli in Fornazzo, a quiet village where you can find snow in winter and shelter from the heat in summer.

On Etna it is good to forget about snacks and industrial fruit juices for a few days. Much better to identify a village greengrocer and feed on the volcanic nature that over time has accumulated DOP and IGP brands, including rare and ancient varieties of apples and pears, cherries, blood oranges, fichidindiapistachios – just to name a few – whose flavors are unmistakably different from those grown elsewhere.

For adults then there would be to wash it all down with excellent volcanic wines, but that’s another story.

This article was published on April 9, 2022 on page 27 of number 22 of the Essential. You can subscribe here.