Page 327 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

village, and if you fancy a longer stay there’s a choice of hotels, all north of the
centre. A road from Zafferana Etnea winds directly up the mountain to Rifugio
Sapienza, a drive of around 45 minutes, while a lower road leads 15km north past
various old lava flows – of 1852, 1950 and, near Fornazzo, of 1979 – to Linguaglossa.

MOUNT ETNA’S ERUPTIONS

Of the scores of recorded eruptions of Etna since the 475 BC one described by
Pindar, some have been disastrously spectacular: in 1169, 1329 and 1381 the lava
reached the sea, while in 1669, the worst year, parts of Catania were wrecked and
its castle was surrounded by molten rock.

During the twentieth century, the Circumetnea railway line was repeatedly ruptured
by lava flows, the towns of the foothills were threatened, and roads and farms
destroyed. The 1971 eruption destroyed the observatory supposed to give warning of
such an event, while in 1979 nine tourists were killed by an explosion on the edge of
the main crater. During the 1992 eruption, which engulfed the outskirts of Zafferana

Etnea, the American navy joined Italian forces in an attempt to stem the lava flow by
dropping reinforced concrete blocks (so-called “Beirut-busters”, used to defend
military camps) from helicopters into the fissures.

In 2001, the military helicopters were out again in force, this time water-bombing
the forest fires and blazing orchards. Regarded as the most complex in the last three
hundred years, the 2001 eruption spewed forth from six vents on Etna’s northern and

southeastern sides and sent vast, fiery fountains of lava to the skies. Drivers found
the roads blocked and air passengers were forced to divert to other island airports,
while Catania suffered a rain of black ash day and night. Luckily there were no
fatalities; the cluster of buildings around Rifugio Sapienza narrowly escaped and the
lava flow petered out 4km short of Nicolosi, though the upper cable-car station was
destroyed and the hut that held the monitoring live-cam was incinerated (somehow

the equipment was saved).

Triggered by an earthquake, the eruption of 2002 saw lava streams pouring down
both north and south flanks, destroying restaurants, hotels and a cable car in the ski
resort of Piano Provenzana, and threatening the villages of Nicolosi and
Linguaglossa below. Emergency teams, however, succeeded in diverting the flow,
and a major catastrophe was averted. Some local villagers, on the other hand,

preferred to place their faith in parading statues of the Virgin Mary before the
volcano, although the devout were far outnumbered by the flocks of sightseers who
made excursions as close as they dared, until curtailed by the authorities.

More eruptions followed in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the latter accompanied by minor