Etna and Alcantara: the Grotta dei Ladroni and the Larderia Canyon Walls

An SUV or minivan, up to eight people, and a route that ends where it started. The first stop is on foot, a walk through the Ragabo forest out to the lava front of the 2002 eruption. The drive then follows the Via Mareneve, still inside the Ragabo pine forest, to where the main hike begins. It covers about 3 km along the Monti Sartorius, from 1,650 to 1,750 metres, a hundred metres of climb spread over the whole distance, which is why it works for most people. The Sartorius craters are a bottoniera, the local word for a row of vents opened along a single fracture, set out like buttonholes. Next is the Grotta dei Ladroni, a lava flow cave, entered with helmets and torches. Lunch is at an Etnean chalet or restaurant. What the price covers is stated plainly: a first course, water, and coffee or tea. The afternoon drops off the volcano and goes through Castiglione di Sicilia, on the list of Italy's most beautiful villages, to the Alcantara Gorges at Motta Camastra. The gorge is a lava canyon cut by the river over thousands of years, with walls up to 25 metres high and passages barely 2 metres wide. Entry to the Alcantara Botanical Park is included, and there is about an hour to walk the gorges on your own. The river water is icy, and you can get in or stay on the banks.