Picking up nuggets of still-warm lava flow, scraping away ash to uncover last winter's snow beneath, running down ash hills – these are just some of the unique thrills on a guided hike up Mt Etna. The largest active volcano in Europe and Italy's highest mountain south of the Alps, it stands 3369m tall since July 2024, when one of the four craters spangling its summit erupted.
Shifting Trails
Mt Etna is a moveable landscape. Overnight, summit craters can change height and walking trails disappear in new lava flow. It is forbidden to trek above 2500m without a professional guide.
Even when it's hot at lower altitudes, it's cold and windy up top. Bring proper walking boots/shoes, a wind jacket, warm headgear and gloves – or hire kit from guides or Rifugio Sapienza. Sunscreen, sunglasses (dust levels are extreme), snood or scarf (to protect face from dust and summit gas stench) and water are essential.
Etna Sud
Mt Etna's southern slope is the most accessible and easiest to access from Catania, 30km south. The end point for buses and cars, and starting point for treks up to the crater area, is Piazzale Rifugio Sapienza (1923m), with souvenir shops, cafes and wooden huts flogging tours clustered around the eponymous mountain refuge Rifugio Sapienza (with restaurant and rooms).
From here, you can independently ride the Funivia dell'Etna (funiviaetna.com; adult/child 5-10yr return €50/30, higher with 4WD bus €86/46) cable car up to the 2500m cafe at Montagnola, from where a purpose-built 4WD bus lumbers (with qualified guide) up to the maximum height allowed by the volcano authorities (changeable, depending on volcanic activity).
Etna Nord
Mt Etna's quieter northern slope is the closest starting point for hikes from Taormina, 50km northeast. No public transport ventures this far. Guided treks leave from Piano Provenzana (1800m), a tiny ski station with wooden huts selling tours and guided treks. Volcanologist guides point out lava flows and extinct craters en route up the mountain.
Summit Craters
When volcanic activity allows, treks with a guide up to 3300m raise the curtain on a lunar landscape of black ash slopes and rocky swathes of ancient lava flows. The wind and/or burning sun can be ferocious in intensity and temperatures can fall below freezing.
Mt Etna hides four craters – invisible from below – on its sprawling summit, including the gigantic Central Crater – 500m-wide, 250m high and formed most likely during the 1669 eruption. Which crater you get to see and how close depends on volcanic activity. East of the crater area, the Valle del Bove, a massive depression formed after a cone collapsed several thousand years ago, falls away in a precipitous 1000m drop.
Easy Hikes Without a Guide
Families and inexperienced hikers keen to get a Mt Etna taster can park by Rifugio Sapienza and explore slopes here around 2000m. Next to Ristorante Crateri Silvestri, an easy 1km footpath loops around the top of the 19th-century Silvestri crater. Opposite the restaurant, another signposted path winds uphill (25 minutes) past the restaurant La Capannina to a crater formed by an eruption in 2001. Some 300 craters in all pock Etna's lateral slopes – view them from above aboard the cable car
