Next time I’m taking a bike!!!
Oh yessiree!

Best road decent ever? But not on a road bike – Too rough!

And some awsome urban downhilling. Parts of this path would be truly scary to ride down: Steep uneven steps straight onto the road anyone? –

Same path: Stepped hairpins, and it got a LOT steeper in places too –

A tricky walk to the top, then down through clouds of sulphur?

Yes, that’s the rim of a volcano, on the island aptly named Vulcano. This second pic was as close as it’s really possible to get. The sulphur is choking. REALLY bad.

Same place, pretty damned technical in places, fast in others

And Any mountain that looks like this during the day… –

….And like this at night HAS to be worth a shot, Yeah?
Mt Etna.

That was the view from our balcony. Utterly amazing the first time you see lava, even from a distance

And of course let’s not forget the cake…

[Arnie]
I’ll be back.
[/Arnie]
😀

Scoping out possible bike opportunities? On your honeymoon? What a surprise! 😉

Etna shots are fab. Do people still really live in the shadow of it?

Etna shots are fab. Do people still really live in the shadow of it?

Yes, the land is fertile.

Scoping

Stop using that word right now – I’ve got a boss who say scope, scoping etc. all the ‘kin time now

so just stop it right?

😉

Scoping out possible bike opportunities?

Impossible not to!

Dez, there’s a fair sized town half the way up!

The road goes about 2/3 of the way up and there’s a touristy-area with gift shops and cafes, then a chairlift (Shut due to poor weather/cloud/snow when we were there though) up to a train that goes round!

Right next to the resteraunt there are 2 craters. One fairly small, the other a decent hill in its own right, both of which are recent eruptions. There’s pics showing people standing outside the resteraunt watchin lava flinging all over the place!

This pic is from the top of the smaller crater, and to the right the steep slope is the bigger crater. That’s the resteraunt roof below! It was 2 degrees and blowing about 40-50mph wind, which blasts you with volcanic ash, hence Kirsty looking frozen!
If Enta blows in a big way, LOTS of people will die.

Some-one has sneezed on your cake.

Looks like Nice 😉 come over here with as many bikes as you and Mrs poddy wants 😉
Ask your sister in law if she wants to come too 😉
x

Best thing about Etna is that the Italians say it’s “about” 3200m high. They’re not exacly sure as it changes height too often to be bothered to keep measureing it!

LOL! From Wikipedia –

3,328 metres (10,919 ft) (varies) 🙂
Width of cone – 40km approx

Not so many scoping (sorry uplink) opportunities for me on holiday:

Food wasn’t quite as appetising either!