04.09.2011
Flight to Catania. Bus into town. Walking around town. Doing a cache! First one for my sister! Nice, clean, young city. Staying at a nice hostel. Going out for a drink after dinner. Meeting with poker-playing Dutch guy and two English from the hostel for some chatting.
Mt. Etna from our hostel dorm
my sis' enjoying a night out in Catania
05.09.2011
The two English and us took the bus up to Rifugio Sapienza. It's a touristy place with lots of tours offered towards the summit. Etna at that time tended to erupt once a week. But it didn't seem likely to happen while we were there. Hence we just headed off to do some proper tramping along the W-flank of Mt.Etna. The 4-WD-track is called pista altamontana and every 1-2 hours there's a CAI rifugio/hut. There's firewood and a big water tank and it's all for free! Gotta love that! Nice and easy walking with occasional glimpses towards the summit craters. Forest. Another geochache. Lava caves. Hiking together with the English for a bit. Because we were on a somewhat tight time schedule, we decided to hike quite a distance on that first day. We made it all the way to the last rifugio (R.Saletti) where we bivouaced! Dinner and lots of tea over the fire. What a night sleeping on the slope of Mt.Etna with a clear sky!
at the trailhead
various events of lava flows
one of these free CAI rifugios, where the English called it a day
crossing a more recent lava flow (= less vegetation/forest) in the late afternoon
our beautiful campsite on the slope of Mt.Etna
06.09.2011
The next morning we got up very early because we had big plans for the day. We hiked 2.5hrs down to Randazzo. We arrived there entirely exhausted and first went to a coffee place for some Italian breakfast. After that, we tried to understand the regional geography and the not-so-easy-to-read bus schedules. In the end, we took the train around the Eastern side of Mt.Etna. In Giatte, we changed trains and having arrived in Messina, we took a boat to Vulcano. Well, the boat did some extra loops so we only arrived on Vulcano around 5pm. But, we made it! We then had to find a place to sleep, which we did on this campsite. The gave us this really cute room which satisfied all our needs. After getting all settled, we went off to soak the sulfur-mud-pool. Great fun! Pizza for dinner.
Early morning rural life on our way to Randazzo.
train #1
Island of Lipari, seen from the port of Salina
sulphur-mud-pool
07.09.2011
Early in the morning, we hike up Vulcano. Nowadays, there are all these nasty 'DON'T' signs (which we ignored;)). I simply love it up there! All the sulphur! The view! The crater!
In the afternoon, we traveled on to the island of Stromboli. We found ourselves a room in a hostel at the far end of the town. After buying some dinner, we went off to see the eruptions at dusk. (Because elevated volcanic acitivity, one wasn't allowed to hike all the way to the top. Instead, we went to the 400m viewpoint which provided terrific view over the Sciara del Fuoco as well as the craters and the eruptions!) Small eruptions occured every 10-15 seconds whereas big ones happened every 15-20 minutes! What a feeling to see and hear the eruptions for real! Love it!
on our way to the crater of Vulcano
solfates, fumaroles: SULFUR!
more sulphur
and more of it...
chasing after it...
crater of Vulcano (with solfatares, Vulcanello, Lipari, Salina etc in background)
Strombolicchio
on our way to the viewpoint... sunset on Stromboli
erupting (this photo is nothing even close to reality!!!)
post-erupting
08.09.2011
Lazy day on Stromboli. Beach. Buying ticket for overnight ferry to Naples. Another beach. Dinner. Taking ferry to Naples. Seeing last farewell eruptions from the ferry. Sleeping on the uppermost deck of the ferry.
09.09.2011
Vesuvio! Napoli! Good morning!
Saying good-bye to all the friends we'd made on Stromboli. Buying train ticket to Milano for the next day. Finding ourselves beds in a dorm. We then went to look at Pompeji, which is a couple km out of town. On a way back, we did some shopping in Napoli. After dinner, we went for a short stroll thru the old town of Napoli which was quite nice.
Vesuvio at dawn
two of us in Pompeji with Vesuvio in background
10.09.2011
6am regional train to Milano. Packed from Rome to Bologna. Chatting, sleeping, enjoying the scenery, eating... In Milano, we had to find a mail box for a postcards which seemed to be a bit tricky. Hence, we ended up taking a fast train to Zurich with only a regional train ticket. 5euros and GA from Milan to Zurich, not too bad;)!
Amazing how much you can do in one week! Gotta love these active Italian volcanoes! Great trip!
never seen so many pics of your sis ;-)
ReplyDelete