Visit to Mt Etna

Look at Sicily Life based in Taormina but they do cover all of Sicily. We used them for transfers but they offer tours too.

Check out the Rick Steves Sicily book. Its coverage of Mount Etna is really detailed.

Sister and I did a day trip from Ortigia to Mt. Etna with "Etna Tribe" in April, 2019. We took an early morning train to Catania and were picked up at the train station by a wonderful guide/driver. I believe he picked us up right at 9:00 am but it may have been earlier. It was just us and one other woman. We chose the Etna tour plus a stop at a "farm." (Bad choice about the farm; guide was apologetic. It was just a large salesroom with farm products. We would have done much better to do the half day Etna, half day Taormina. Etna Tribe has multiple options for their Etna tours.) However, we really enjoyed the Etna portion of the tour. We first stopped and went down into a cave formed from how the lava moved and dried, and where Sicilians went for safety during WWII bombings. Then, we drove on up Mt. Etna. It would be really easy to drive up there in your own car, because it's paved road all the way to a large parking area, where everyone parks. There are cafes and a couple of shops around the parking area. We spent our time exploring down into smaller cauldrons and hiking up part of the mountain, around another cauldron. We were given the option of hiking a short ways to the cable car and taking it all the way up but all three of us in the van said that we were not interested in doing that. I was very happy with our guide, his knowledge of history and geography, and his flexibility in shaping the day how we wanted it to be on the mountain. By the way, it was COLD in mid-April up there, probably freezing (patches of snow), quite damp, and very windy. We had coats, gloves, and hats and were still chilled. The silly groups from cruise ships in their flip-flops and shorts were absolutely miserable. Definitely get an early start because apparently often the clouds move in by mid to late morning and if you want to see anything from the summit an early start is highly recommended.

We did it ourselves from Siracusa, pretty easy drive, maybe 2 hours. This is farther from Etna than Catania or Taormina, so I think it's easy to do from those places. From Siracusa you go through the Catania outskirts, but I can't speak to driving in Catania center. Drive, park at base camp, there are plenty of cable car and other options you can easily choose once you are there. The nice thing about driving yourself is that you can stop at different viewpoints, restaurants, or other activities along the way.

Gosh, what a great idea. A visit to Mt. Etna, the most active volcano in the world. What could possibly go wrong.

In 2019, I climbed 3 volcanos in the Naples area, Monte Nuovo, Epomeo (on Ischia), and Vesuvius. It was a way to put some structure into the vacation and I dutifully posted pictures to Facebook to show off for my friends.

I would love to climb Etna, and until recently was toying with the idea of climbing Stromboli, but to tell you the truth, after this year's eruption, I think I will pass on Stromboli. Volcanos and fun, but scary as hell.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/large-eruption-italys-stromboli-volcano-180976325/

According to our guide (who had a degree in geology), Mt. Etna doesn't explode with gas and pyrotechnic destruction. It opens up a new cauldron somewhere along the top or along the side, each time, and the lava oozes slowly enough that people have time to get their families and livestock out of the way. He also said that Etna is very carefully monitored, from a number of places around the mountain, for any activity that might suggest a new lava flow, and the mountain is "closed down" to people if they detect such activity. Those new flows may also be accompanied by some airborne ash (as those on the RS tour several years ago know, when the Catania airport was closed for a few days and folks had to hurriedly make their way to Palermo to find a flight out of Sicily). Now, I'm not claiming all this is 100% accurate, but our guide seemed pretty sure of himself....and so we carried on with our ascent!

I was in Catania a couple times in the late 70s after eruptions and the entire city was covered in a thin layer of ash. Shop owners swept the ash into the streets and it was a couple inches deep near the curbs. Since I was flying in and out of the nearby Sigonella naval air facility, we often circled the mountain to watch the lava flows. I can only imagine how much ash I inhaled when in Catania itself.

I was at Mt. Etna in Sept. of 2014. Our tour group was based in Taormina. The day prior to our excursion they had a "skiff" of snow. Our guide was concerned about the roads leading to the Volcano, but the following day the snow was gone and it was a lovely day on the mighty Mt Etna. It was amazing walking the volcano. Sidebar: We have 5 major volcanoes in WA. State. I recall Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980. It is about 150 miles from our home and we heard the loud boom that morning. We experienced ash and poor visibility for several weeks. A few months later we flew over Mt St. Helens. It was incredible to see it from the air. Terrible devastation to the environment and loss of lives.

I have some great photos of one of the old calderas with me at the bottom. We took a tour from Taormina and did not have time to take the gondola. It was not a long drive. Just make sure you have the option to do what you want. I was disappointed I didn’t have enough time. I enjoyed our visit. Sorry that I can’t help with anymore information.

"Mt. Etna doesn't explode with gas and pyrotechnic destruction. It opens up a new cauldron somewhere along the top or along the side, each time, and the lava oozes slowly enough that people have time to get their families and livestock out of the way. He also said that Etna is very carefully monitored, from a number of places around the mountain, for any activity that might suggest a new lava flow, and the mountain is "closed down" to people if they detect such activity. "

Ha ha, as explained by a guide who makes a living guiding you? I can assure you that while Etna may not have a recent history of "exploding" it certainly has a habit of not 'oozing' lava but throwing it. And it certainly has a modern history of suddenly deciding to spew lava high in the air and toss head-crushing rocks with unexpected great distance on a Tuesday and then calm down on Wed, and by Friday decide to do it all over again. Closed down during eruptions? Nope. Been there done that.

Be very careful, do your research. Search the internet for websites about Etna and educate yourself accordingly and weigh your risk tolerance carefully. 10 people were injured on Etna in 2017 including a camera crew when Etna decided to throw not ooze lava and rocks. When Etna starts erupting again there might be an inital warning and closing, but that eventually evolves to a approach at your own risk mentality and people and tours start inching closer and closer as confidence and fearlessness starts slowly growing.

I was on the mountain in 2018 during eruptions and where we stood one day by taking the trams on the mountain was covered in new lava just weeks later. Italy is very different than the US. There is no such thing as OSHA or anything like our level of government protections to save us from ourselves, and I think that is a good thing, but you have to be aware of the risks.

Etna is easy to do by car and then you can do any number of combinations of hiking/chairlift/tram to go as far up as you dare.

Since nobody did it yet, I post a couple of links where you can watch the Etna eruption of three days ago:
https://www.open.online/2020/12/23/eruzione-etna-22-dicembre-video/
http://www.meteoweb.eu/2020/12/terremoto-sicilia-etna-eruzione-rischio-sismico/1525362/
Honestly, this is one very active vulcano, but not so dangerous for people because is very tall and big, so you can watch eruptions for afar. Being almost continuously active is very strange that happens a very huge explosion, even if little earthquakes and booming are common. Of course eruption like the one of few days ago can create a rain of ashes over the towns and Catania itself. Sometimes even the airport is closed.
Another way to explore the Etna area is the train: https://www.circumetnea.it/ An half ring around the volcano, connectin Catania to some famous towns and villages, like Bronte or Paternò.

I don’t know about it not being dangerous, the hotel we stayed in when we climbed Etna got levelled in a subsequent eruption (we are going back over ten years at this point). We were lucky enough to get to the very top crater, although there had been an eruption only some weeks previously. So much smoke, steam and fumes coming off the thing you could barely see where you were going and, of course, it was pretty windswept.

The fumes were pretty noxious too and really necessitated the wearing of some sort of mask, although where you’d get one of those is a bit....oh, hang on.....

For what it's worth (probably not much), I was perfectly satisfied with my train trip part of the way around the base of Mt. Etna and the distant views I had from Catania.