etna...

what would you do in the case of a volcanic eruption? stay as far
away as possible? no, ida and i were on our way to a bday party for a
friend's (fabio) niece when we saw the amber glow on top of mount
etna. she was really excited at how big the eruption was (biggest she
had personally seen) and asked if i'd like to go see it--of course i
said yes! how many opportunities would i get to witness this?! we
went to the party as planned, an awesome sicilian feast at fabio's
parents' house. afterwards we recruited 3 others to join us. so at
11pm we make the 2 hour drive toward etna, meeting up with ida's
sister and boyfriend, who operates an adventure tour company, and have
been up etna many times. keep in mind that this was all
impromptu....we didn't have any proper clothing/gear to hike up a
steep mountain....but, we had scrounged up some extra clothing and
hiking shoes to take with us (good thing too, since a couple of us had
sandals). after trekking uphill for 45mins in the middle of the night
with one flash light we got to the best place to observe etna in all
her glory...and it was AWESOME! i've never seen anything like it.
worth all the craziness we went through! the adventure continued
when we decided to head down the mountain at 3am by ourselves, since
ida's sister and her boyfriend were staying on and sleeping there (!).
so without our guides and just one pen light, ida, God bless her
brave soul, fearlessly took us, and some other hikers down the
mountain. anyway, by the time we got back to troina, it was 5am.