I can honestly say that I only booked accommodation in Catania because it was close to Mount Etna and I thought it would be really cool to climb another active volcano. What I didn’t realise at the time was that it would be a little hidden gem on its own.
It started with us checking into our Airbnb accommodation and finding out that the owners had only just started renting it out as they had recently renovated and we were there first guests.
So here is what I love about Airbnb accommodation – the personal touches. I’m talking about leaving us 5 litre bottles of water because they had been having problems with their water and putting beach towels out for us, just in case we needed them. Leaving little pastries for breakfast the next days or a bottle of red wine. I just love feeling like a VIP guest. Obviously there are the exceptions to the rules and you wonder how you ended up in some dodgy apartment because it looked so nice on the photos! 🙂
After thinking that there wasn’t very much to see in Catania, we actually ended up spending a whole day doing the sights and were pretty surprised to see so many tourists around in the squares. The worst part about the tourist squares was the guys trying to sell us things at every turn. It was even worse if they had heard us talking before and launched into a very lively rendition of “Africa, are you from Africa?”.We just wanted to sit and eat our lunch, but couldn’t take being hassled the whole time and would end up walking while eating. Not the greatest thing for digestion, but it worked nonetheless.
When I say that we were happy to return to our accommodation for the night, that is an understatement. It had been so hot and humid and having to walk through the Catania Fish Market to get home, I wasn’t feeling so great. Something about the smells of fish cooking in the sun that didn’t do it for me.
We had booked our private guide for the evening to climb Mount Etna and were super excited. We had actually booked the experience on Airbnb because I trust the reviews of the people who have actually done it. They had all raved about the guide and how enthusiastic he was and they weren’t wrong.
I’ve never met someone who loved an active volcano more. He was telling us all about how he lives on the other side of the volcano and goes skiing on it in the winter. He also told us about sand boarding down the side of Mount Etna through the black volcanic sand that collects there.
His name was Saro and he truly made our trip. We picked up two other guys and headed up Mount Etna, but not before stopping off at an old lava tube where we donned headlamps and headed inside for a better look. For me, it looked very much like a very long cave, but so interesting to hear about how the lava actually formed the tube we were standing in.
Then we drove up a little higher, parked the car and grabbed hiking sticks for the trip up the volcano. By this point in our trip, Luch and I were already quite fit, so we thought it would be a piece of cake. Oh how wrong we were! I have never lost my breath so many times in a hike before. It seemed to be straight up all the way and never really leveled out.
At least we took a few short breaks to take photos and catch our breath. I loved hearing the volcano actually roaring in the distance and the fact that the closer we got to the top, the more our clothes and hair got covered in ash. It was like something out of a movie. I was a little bit scared of course that we might be getting too close to the volcano, but when we got to the top, it turned out that we were very far from it.
Saro setup a little picnic for us with beer, juice and snacks and we sat down to just appreciate the view. The only problem was, the clouds started to roll in and cover exactly where we would be able to see the glow of the lava shooting out of the volcano. So we sat and waited patiently, all the while hoping to see a sliver of light shine out. Poor Saro got more and more upset with his beloved volcano and started to swear and pull zaps at the mountain. I was just laughing in my head because I’d never seen someone so passionate about making a tourists dreams come true.
In my opinion, that is what is lacking when it comes to tourism. People who actually care about making people’s day and showing them the time of their life. I wish there were more Saro’s in the world.
So after a few hours more, with the clouds even heavier than before and it starting to get dark, we headed back down the way we had come. The only problem is, it started to rain, so we took the shortcut. The shortcut consisted of us running down this pretty steep side of a hill with slippery pieces of long grass that you had to try and avoid at all costs, and of course it was almost completely dark by this point.
The fact that all of us made it to the bottom without any injuries still surprises me. I just thought it felt like the volcano had just erupted and we quickly had to run away from the lava. At least that is what I was thinking about a lot while we were running down the side.
In the car on the ride home, all of us were slightly disappointed but still exhilarated because how many people in the world get to say that they’ve climbed an active volcano. Then Luch shouts for us all to look to the right and for a few seconds we finally saw the glow of the lava spewing out of Mount Etna.
It was only a few seconds, but it was magical – a bit like the Northern Lights or spotting a leopard in a tree. Lots of people have seen them, but it is still really rare to and you feel special even having experienced it only for a few seconds, like you’re part of a secret club that knows that magic still exists.
