Our time spent in Riposto included an excellent guided tour of the lower regions of Mt Etna looking at a series of lateral volcano events and the results of lava in the area over a period of many centuries, right up to recent times. The foothills of Etna are home to wine growing, fruit trees, chestnuts, almonds and so on, the rich volcanic soil and good rainfall offering ideal conditions.

You can be lucky. That is where the lava flow stopped!

Chestnut trees are prolific in the acid volcanic soil

Walking up to one the many lateral volcanos at about 1500m elevation, the main Etna cone is another 1,500m up.

Hels with a “bomb” from the volcano