taste

The mushrooms of Etna

There is no better place to hunt for some porcini mushrooms, which are an excellent typical product of Etna....
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smell

The undergrowth

The undergrowth of the chestnut grove of the Red Mountains is truly rich in vegetation and has an intense aroma....
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sight

The route of the 1669 flow

It is strange that two hills that are so green destroyed almost half the city of Catania. From the Red Mountains, follow the path of the flow to the sea!...
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touch

Watch out for the chestnuts

As tasty and sweet as they are “dangerous”, the chestnut fruits are protected by thorny burrs. You must be careful not to prick yourself....
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touch

The vibrating ground

While standing, seated or placing your hands on the crater perimeter, you will feel the ground vibrate, caused by the explosions inside the volcanic conduit....
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smell

Thin air

In addition to the omnipresent odour from the fumaroles of the Etna summit area, when you breathe in the air you sense that there is very little oxygen. In reality, the quantity of oxygen in the mixture that makes up the air is the same, but the lower atmospheric pressure here causes the rareficatio...
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hearing

Internal activity

In absolute silence, even without seeing ash clouds rising from the bottom of the craters, you can distinctly see some explosions: these are simply gas bubbles exploding inside the volcanic conduit when they are about to reach the surface....
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sight

The inside of the summit craters

If you are lucky, trained and accustomed to high altitudes and trekking, and especially if there is no ongoing eruption, you can fully enjoy the sight of the inside of the summit craters. Straight away, you notice the ever-present tall gas columns coming from the summit fumarole fields....
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hearing

The rumble of the volcano

When arriving in this area in a period of eruptions or explosions from the summit craters, you can distinctly hear the explosions every 5-10 minutes....
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smell

A cloud of sulphur

In the Torre del Filosofo area, on days when the wind blows from the north-west, it is easy to be enveloped in the cloud of gas that descends along the flanks of the summit craters. It is an acrid smell, in which it is easy to recognise the smell of rotten egg typical of the presence of sulphur. Cov...
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