Air, Landier, and Sea

Bright and early, we headed up to Mount Etna, which is the tallest, active volcano in Europe.

Although it’s an active volcano, even when it erupts, the lava moves very slowly. Apparently, there’s a video of an eruption where people have time to collect all of their things and leave and then the lava destroys their homes behind them (so still sad, but not nearly as tragic).

Since the volcano is so “gentle” the locals call it “Mama Etna”.

We were told that the white smoke coming out of the top means that everything is all good (so I made sure we saw that smoke before we headed up).

The options for today’s activities were either hiking or biking on the volcano. Bryce and I decided to bike. And by “bike” I mean, we opted for E bikes. It was our first time on E bikes and let me just say they’re amazing! I will also say that Mama Etna can also be a bit of a mother to ascend, so even with E bikes, it was some work.

The thing with E bikes is that there are different levels of assistance, and you want to use them appropriately in order to ensure you don’t run out of battery before the end of your ride.

By the time I made it to the top (not the top of the volcano, but just what was considered the top of our ride, which was 7 miles up) I had 72% battery left. Bryce had 26%, so he was very relieved that he wouldn’t need the battery going downhill.

The bike ride was absolutely beautiful! I imagined biking on a volcano to be wide open volcanic rock everywhere and really hot. Actually, it was like biking through the woods.

Due to the type of volcanic ash that Mt. Etna produces, it acts as a fertilizer, so it’s lush and green, and even allows for the production of really great wine in this region. Ash is sold in town as fertilizer for locals’ gardens.

Most of the ride was shaded, with a nice breeze- we loved it!

There were also people on our trip who opted for regular bikes and we were beyond impressed with their ability to bike Mt. Etna- it was quite the feat. It was great to get to share a moment of celebration for them when they reached the top.

While most people dislike the ascent, I struggle with the descent. My need for speed is basically non-existent, so while everyone whizzed by me, I held my brakes for pretty much the whole ride down. Since I had the E bike, my speedometer showed that I was traveling at 30 km/hr, and it felt like I was flying, so I can’t imagine how fast everyone else was moving.

My sweet husband rode ahead of me, and would make stops to allow me to catch up with him. I was definitely the last one to make it to the vineyard for lunch, but I wasn’t the only one on the road.

On both the ascent and descent there was quite a bit of cars and motorcycles, some of which were quite speedy as they passed us. Luckily, the bus that brought us to the volcano followed behind our group, which helped us feel a little more protected.

So as I’m about half a mile from the vineyard, my hands now numb from gripping my brakes so hard, I hear a gunshot. Suddenly, I had a little more need for speed. A few moments later, another BANG, BANG, BANG! So as you can imagine, I’m now desperately trying to see where this sound is coming from, while going 40 km/hr on an E bike and swearing like a sailor.

When I got to the bottom of the hill, the tour guide was waiting for me and she reassured me that those weren’t gunshots, just bombs. Oh, right… And oh, by the way “bombs” is what they call fireworks in Sicily. Apparently it was the Feast of St. Andrew, and people were celebrating with fireworks at two o’clock in the afternoon (naturally).

We enjoyed a beautiful lunch at a vineyard overlooking the countryside. This tour group does the most incredible job of making sure that I have gluten free meals, and they’ve all been fantastic. I’m so grateful!

We bussed back to the hotel and Bryce and I checked out the town of Taormina, which was very cute. It reminded us of the Santorini, with little shops lining cobblestone walkways. Since it’d been a least a few hours since our last coffee, we decided we needed to find a cafe and we lucked into the best one!

It had gluten free cannolis! I was absolutely thrilled to get to have a Sicilian cannoli gluten and guilt free!

Our main event of the evening was going to The Godfather House. This is the house in the movie where Michael Corleone’s Sicilian wife demonstrates how she can speak English (“Maunday, Tuesday, Thaursday, Wednesday”) and then unfortunately meets her demise from a car bomb (not the firework kind).

We headed out from the hotel on the bus and then took a small detour where we got into classic cars to drive to The Godfather House. We lucked out and got a real Godfather-style 1950s Cadillac.

Our driver was super fun and loved to honk the horn for passers by who were (understandably) very intrigued by our caravan of classic vehicles.

The dinner (per usual) was also amazing! They brought in various entertainment, including an adorable children’s choir and dance crew. Also, “The Godfather” welcomed us to the home.

Once again, another beautiful, memorable night.