living with the lava

Mount Etna. The largest volcano in Europe, famously visible from the moon should any of you be there in the near future…anyone signed up for Branson’s shuttle? More famous in our household as the location where Alberto Contador tore apart the field in the 2011 Giro d’Italia as he unleashed a surprise attack on the southern ascent of Mount Etna, and his “power erupted” as the press of the day so cleverly exclaimed. Either way we were not cycling nor trekking up the peak of Mount Etna, but rather, we opted for a rather civilised and entirely educational 4WD tour. As one of the world’s most active volcanoes there is a lot to see on Mount Etna, although despite the regular and originally weekly, but now more like monthly eruptions that have been occurring since 2011 from all four craters as well as fissures and old craters along its slopes, we had to be content with the spectacular views of the steaming top, evidence of past eruptions, and pretty amazing sunset sitting at 2,000 metres on the volcano.

We realised as we drove closer to the mountain that we had little to no idea what to expect, but as we explored the volcano we realised, whatever it was that we had expected, was not what we were seeing. The side of the mountain was teeming with life, while the more recent lava flows had so visibly changed the landscape in the area, it made it possible to understand how much Catania had transformed as a result of the 1669 eruption. In 1669, lava flowed for 122 days consecutively, making it all the way to the city centre, and actually extending the then coastline two kilometres further to sea. Near our accommodation a castle stands in the middle of the piazza, when visiting earlier in the day we had wondered why the windows of the castle were below what seemed to be below the water line of the moat. As it turns out, this castle was once on a cliff at the seas edge, but the moat was filled and the coast extended so that modern day Catania looks nothing like that of just 400 years earlier.

The 1983 and 1991 eruption lava flows were most evident on Mount Etna’s slopes. The 1983 eruption had filled valleys and engulfed many homes that littered the slope. One such house that was originally perched atop a hill overlooking such a valley was slowly filled with lava as it rose slowly higher until only the house above the door frames was visible amidst a sea of black, crumbling lava. The 1991 eruption flowed down the mountain towards the small town of Zafferena at an altitude of 800m. Luckily for the town the deep Valley of the Ox protected them from the lava flow, initially. Until this valley, at its lowest point (of approximately 150m) began to overflow and descend towards the town, causing a military intervention to evacuate the town. Amazingly the flow stopped literally two metres from the first house on the edge of town, the man that still apparently lives there today, merely rebuilt his fence over the newly formed mound of rock and went on with his life. The valley is a pretty amazing sight to behold, filled with black rock that you can see make its way to the very edge of this town, looks like nothing I have seen before.

The unexpected part that I mentioned was the vegetation and growth on Mount Etna. While it logically makes sense, it seemed unreal to see forest absolutely thriving. After thirty years, broom begins to colonise lava rock, ridding the ground of nitrogen and lichens break it down to soil. Slowly other species begin to arrive. At higher altitudes it was a bizarre sight to see the black lava covered in shrubby flowers, that could be best described as a desert landscape. We were incredibly lucky (as it was by no means planned) that we arrived during the ten day period when it flowers and it was a spectacular sight. The only thing that competed was the sunset from the mountain, which actually accentuated the vibrant reds and purples of the flowers. Although perhaps a lava eruption would have surpassed even this view.  

Above left. The flow of lava from the 1991 eruption is visible right down to two metres from the yellow house in Zafferena. 

Above right and below. One of the four craters at the peak of Mount Etna and the steam arising from within, when this turns grey, the locals know that she is about to blow. 

The valley of the Ox was filled with lava more than 150 metres deep, there are small green mounds protruding from the long stream of black rock that are actually the tip of hills. It was quite incredible to understand how much the landscape changed with each eruption

 

Small pink, red and purple flowers were in bloom for the first of ten short days of blossom on the side of Mount Etna

Above. A house that once sat on top of a small hill, surround and slowly swallowed by lava in 1983. The lava from these eruptions actually moves so slowly that you can"out walk" it, resulting in many locals watching the destruction of houses as you would a spectator sport.

 

The sunset was particularly spectacular as it illuminated the small flower bushes over the rocks and turned the steam rising from Mount Etna various shades of pink.

the city of the volcano

Throughout history Catania has rivalled Palermo for the dominance of Siciliy, and while in recent years Palermo has won out on this battle, it has unfortunately maintained a similarly poor reputation for crime, dirtiness and visiting has frequently been discouraged. Thankfully these negative cautions have been proven highly unfounded and in the last few years the city has developed a reputation as an energetic university town filled with some wonderful churches and architecture, including much of Bellini’s earlier works, vibrant and inspiring fish and fresh produce markets, and of course for its vicinity to the ever present and dominating Mount Etna.

Staying at a great B&B near the centre we were able to explore the city at the leisurely pace that we have become quite accustomed to. Surprisingly (for me in particular) one of the main highlights of our stay was the early morning fish market. A large piazza and nearby streets are overtaken each morning by large red tents under which old and young men alike busily fillet fish and sell their goods. Catanians enthusiastically engage with these mongers to ensure they get just the right piece of fish or selection of seafood. Swordfish and tuna are two of the local specialties, impressing us with the size of the fish caught, we didn’t think such sizeable creatures would still be swimming in the Mediterranean! Many people were even chowing down on raw white bait in bread rolls for breakfast, a “delicacy” we were certainly not partaking in, but instead opted to watch the many people come and go and attempt to work our what some of the weird and wonderful creatures were for sale.

Adjoining the fish market is a sprawling fresh food market that overtakes the winding alleyways of the area. Filling the streets amongst the beautiful terraced buildings, many local nonnas stood on their balconies watching over the hustle and bustle of the market below. Stalls were filled with the freshest and vibrantly coloured goods, by this point we were salivating like dogs in front of a raw steak. From vegetables and delightful summer fruits, to local specialities such as salted ricotta, to the elderly butcher tying sausages faster than our eyes could track; the market was a spectacularly vibrant and intoxicating experience. Sadly without a kitchen to capitalise on all the amazing fare, we opted to try many of the local trattorias that provided delicious meals and opportunities to taste all that we had seen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a once beautiful city

One fine and particularly sunny day we visited Syracuse, notably Sicily’s most visited city and reputed as the most beautiful city in the ancient world. A Corinthian settlement from 734 BC, it rivalled Athens in power and prestige, and with as the Greek theatre was home to many of Aeschylus’ tragedies, it was considered an especially sophisticated and cultured city. Of course, with time, the city became a Roman colony, that was later looted and largely left in bare ruins. Today, the ruins sit amidst the present day Sicilian city. The city itself struck us as demonstrating the poorer side of Sicily, with the exception of the ancient island neighbourhood of Ortygia.

What is left of the Greek theatre sits alongside the limestone quarries from which the Greek city was built. Conveniently for the tyrants of the time, the very same quarry made for the perfect prison for slaves, and even more useful was the acoustics created by the quarry allowed eavesdropping on the prisoners. Or so the story goes…

While the ancient city was interesting to see, the real delight and charm of Syracuse, which warrants the mass of visitors is Ortygia. Quite literally a rocky island off of the edge of Syraceuse, and with the help of quite a lot of EU funding has been restored to a rather magnificent state. The mix of ancient ruins, churches and architecture from the past 1000 years filling the piazzas, narrow alleyways winding through the island, and charming seaside promenade had us charmed and captivated. Someone seemed to also decide that Ortygia should be marketed as a fashion, culture and design shopping attraction… a seemingly random decision, that had the added bonus of replacing tacky tourist shops with upmarket, selective and impressive “souvenirs” which impressed with their artistic and design elements. This seemed to have rubbed off on many of the restaurants and bars that had also been designed with a level of attention that we have not seen elsewhere in Sicily.

Summer also seemed to really hit Sicily in the past day or two making the afternoons rather scorching and almost tough to be out in. Here it is easy to understand why everything shuts down until four or five in the afternoon. Consequently we have turned to lemon granites to get us through. Talking to some Sicilians (in anticipation of moving to England we are practicing the activity of discussing the weather whenever possible…) it seems the hot has arrived early this year and everyone is a bit fearful of the consequently long summer ahead. It seems we just need to make sure we spend more time at the beach!!!

Note. For some reason blogspot seems to be misbehaving and not allowing me to layout this blog as I would normally like... but I do not have the time nor patience to fix it, so I apologise if this post is viewing funnily for you.