Torre del Filosofo

The Grand Tour in Sicily

The Grand Tour was a route with various stops, required by young aristocrats to complete their university education. From 1400 onwards, it spread rapidly throughout Europe and encouraged contact between students and the main European courts through educational trips.
Italy immediately represented the centre of European cultural and artistic life, and hosted a large number of young foreigners during the Renaissance. Initially, the most visited cities were Rome, Florence, Milan and Turin, and it was not customary to go any further south than Naples, at least until the 17th century, when Sicily and its historical and artistic natural beauty also became part of the Grand Tour.
During their journeys, travellers would observe the island from different points of view: from the historical-anthropological analysis to the landscape, to which a scholar’s emotions and theses or an artist’s reproductions would be added. This made it possible to reconstruct a rather detailed image of 18th-century Sicily. Other not-so-young travellers were attracted by the beauty described in Sicily, one of the most important being Wolfgang Goethe .

The 1669 eruption in Catania

The Grand Tour in Sicily

Acireale and reconstruction after the 1693 earthquake

The senses tell The summit craters

Etna: a marvellous group of different types of flora

The eruption of 1928 that destroyed the town of Mascali

The earthquake that changed the geography of eastern Sicily in 1693

The living mountain

Torre del Filosofo: at the base of the summit craters (2950 metres)

Etna, a natural laboratory where experiments can be carried out

The “notches” of snow

The fault system of the “Timpe” of Acireale

Val Calanna, the first step towards a single large volcanic structure

The Etna viewpoint

Why is Etna one of the most studied volcanoes in the world?

The senses tell Torre del Filosofo

The world’s first (almost successful) attempt to stop a lava flow: the eruption of 1991-93

Lachea Island and the Aci Trezza Stacks

The Jaci river

Malavoglia

The senses tell The Red Mountains

Humankind and the volcano: how should we behave? Volcanic risk

The senses tell Valle del Leone

Valle del Leone and the Elliptical

Empedocles and his passion for Etna

The first volcanic structures of Etna, between Aci Castello and Aci Trezza

The senses tell The Etna Viewpoint

The Elliptical, the first great volcano of Etna

The senses tell Acicastello and Acitrezza

Acireale and its “timpe”

Summit crater activity between 2011 and 2019

The Red Mountains and the destructive eruption of 1669

The senses tell Acireale

The continuous evolution of the Etna summit craters

A fauna yet to be discovered

An ever-evolving volcano

The 2001 eruption of Etna, when the Mountain seemed to be alive

The different names of the “Muntagna”

The senses tell Val Calanna