Mount Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe, around 3,330 metres above sea level. Pronto Tours organises the climb: in summer up the north slope by 4x4 jeep, with trekking guided by a volcanologist and lunch at a winery with tasting; in winter by 4x4 bus, with snowshoeing and dinner in a refuge at 1,900 metres.
Mount Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe and reaches around 3,330 metres above sea level. It is not a backdrop to the Sicilian landscape: it is a massif crossed in bands, changing climate, colours and vegetation as you climb. Travelling it at altitude is the most direct way to understand how this part of the island is made.
Pronto Tours builds one itinerary per season on Mount Etna. In summer the north slope is covered by 4x4 jeep and then on foot, trekking; in winter the climb is by 4x4 bus and continues on snowshoes. In both cases the group walks with a volcanologist, and in both cases the table is part of the programme: lunch at a winery in summer, dinner in a refuge in winter.
It is the kind of day that carries an incentive well: the climb gives the group a shared objective and a memory no one recounts as a visit. For the same reason it works with large groups, family ones included, and with roots tourism programmes that call for a day outdoors. And it remains a possible add-on alongside a corporate event, a MICE congress or a wedding in Sicily.
Mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe
Mount Etna measures around 3,330 metres above sea level and is the highest active volcano in Europe. Its bulk is recognisable from much of eastern Sicily, but the way it is made becomes clear by climbing, because the landscape reorganises itself in altitude bands.
At the lower altitudes the route crosses vast vineyards and the plantations of the famous Bronte pistachios. From a thousand metres upwards the woods begin: chestnut, oak and pine. The result is a range of colours and climates that, within a few hours, lets you take in at once the scale of the sky, the woods, the sea and the land.
Mount Etna excursion in summer
In summer the climb up the north slope is made by 4x4 jeep.
From there the route continues on foot, trekking in the company of a volcanologist: the figure who makes the ground you are crossing legible. During the excursion a granita tasting is possible in a snow cave, served by a master granita maker.
Lunch is at a winery, with a wine tasting.
Mount Etna excursion in winter
In winter the climb is made by 4x4 bus. The route continues with snowshoeing over the snow, in this case too in the company of a volcanologist.
The day closes with dinner in a refuge at 1,900 metres. It is the same volcano as the summer itinerary, at a different pace: on snow you walk more slowly and the landscape is another one.