Britt and I have been talking about making a list of the 10 top things to see in Italy and we thought that it would take a month to find just-the-right sites for our list. We have been 4 days and we have already 4 sites. We might have to make a top 33 list instead because that is the amount of days we are together on this trip! Each day has given us unbelievable “unbellieve, unbelieve, unbelieve..."
Today we were 9,580 feet above sea level on the “Mountain of Fire”; Mt. Etna. We opted for the cable car up and the jeep-bus to take us as high as we could go. The paid transportation dropped us about 500 metres from Torre del Filosofo so we hiked the remaining distance, through the strongest, most-gusting winds either of us has ever experienced to get as high as we could go. Today, Etna is erupting on the north east side, so we couldn't go there. (The hike, that we opted not to do, takes 5 hours! The people we saw doing the hiked looked like they were going to die!)
Even though we were wearing long sleeves (Yes we hiked Etna in matching sandals), our upper body was very cold from the height and wind, but our legs, from the knees down, were warmed by the pulsating heat from the ground. We touched the earth with our hands and felt the heat. It was a weird sensation feeling the earth so hot. When we were almost at the top, I had a lot of trouble breathing. I felt like a 100 year old smoking east-of-adelaine-grandma! We paused so I could breathe. It's a lung thing!
We were standing on the edge of one of the craters and really believed that the wind could blow us off the ridge; it was so strong! We firmed our feet with each step that we stepped and made it to the top. We wondered if we were the only people worried about being blown off the top! On the way down, we both felt dizzy and extremely tired.
Let me make a comment about my hair - today I had on my "Volcano" hair-do; live lava streams screaming out from the centre of my head engulfing and killing all that it touched - death to all, don't look at Medusa!.... ~ I might break down and get it cut... but I need "Georgie" my hair stylist from First Choice on Oxford near Quebec...
Tonight we are relaxing and enjoying the beautiful mountain view as the sun sets at an Agritoursmo farm that Britt found online last night. We had a little trouble finding it but a man, who saw that we needed help, stopped his car and told us in absolutely complete Italian to go straight, turn right, turn left, go through a big intersection and turn right and we understood him and found it!
PS - omg - it is erupting tonight =! Look at the header photo!
Today we were 9,580 feet above sea level on the “Mountain of Fire”; Mt. Etna. We opted for the cable car up and the jeep-bus to take us as high as we could go. The paid transportation dropped us about 500 metres from Torre del Filosofo so we hiked the remaining distance, through the strongest, most-gusting winds either of us has ever experienced to get as high as we could go. Today, Etna is erupting on the north east side, so we couldn't go there. (The hike, that we opted not to do, takes 5 hours! The people we saw doing the hiked looked like they were going to die!)
Even though we were wearing long sleeves (Yes we hiked Etna in matching sandals), our upper body was very cold from the height and wind, but our legs, from the knees down, were warmed by the pulsating heat from the ground. We touched the earth with our hands and felt the heat. It was a weird sensation feeling the earth so hot. When we were almost at the top, I had a lot of trouble breathing. I felt like a 100 year old smoking east-of-adelaine-grandma! We paused so I could breathe. It's a lung thing!
We were standing on the edge of one of the craters and really believed that the wind could blow us off the ridge; it was so strong! We firmed our feet with each step that we stepped and made it to the top. We wondered if we were the only people worried about being blown off the top! On the way down, we both felt dizzy and extremely tired.
Let me make a comment about my hair - today I had on my "Volcano" hair-do; live lava streams screaming out from the centre of my head engulfing and killing all that it touched - death to all, don't look at Medusa!.... ~ I might break down and get it cut... but I need "Georgie" my hair stylist from First Choice on Oxford near Quebec...
Tonight we are relaxing and enjoying the beautiful mountain view as the sun sets at an Agritoursmo farm that Britt found online last night. We had a little trouble finding it but a man, who saw that we needed help, stopped his car and told us in absolutely complete Italian to go straight, turn right, turn left, go through a big intersection and turn right and we understood him and found it!
PS - omg - it is erupting tonight =! Look at the header photo!
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