Sicily - self-guided hiking
 

My friend and I are considering a Sicily visit this coming Easter. We would be keen to do some self-guided walking, we are fit and happy for challenging options, which also encompass the local culture and heritage. Also interested in Mt Etna. Any advice? Does anyone have experience with a reputable company here?

To plan your own hike visit the link below, suitable for walkers of all levels.

http://www.etnatracking.com/en/mount...-hiking-trails

Hope this is of use to you.

Hi back,

Thanks - this looks great thanks.

Hi Forgottenlife,

I meant to ask - have you been there/done that? As in, hiked in Sicily. If so, any tips, favourite walks and why - from you or any others out there? Cheers

Not yet, but I plan to.

Found the link I provided doing some early research (I like to plan ahead).

Thanks for this,

Has anyone out there walked on Etna - any advice? Can you walk there easily without a guide? Best trail?

Also, what's driving in Sicily like (I will be with my Spanish friend who is used to driving on the right, unlike me in a left-drive country!)

I'm not sure what you mean by "interested in Mt. Etna." I didn't try to hike it, just did a bit of walking at the top. I joined a day tour out of Taormina that also included the fascinating and unusual Gole dell' Alcantara. Once we reached the "base" station for Etna (which is to say after a bus and then a train and then another bus), we had to take -- as I recall -- a cable car and then a huge RV-kind of thing to get to the top, where one could join a guide for a walk. (Actually, the very TOP -- the very highest cone -- was some distance away. Some people left to try to climb it. I chose to join a guide for a tour of the almost-top.) I found the experience other worldly -- I could feel the heat through my thick-soled boots even as the wind chilled the rest of me through my layers and layers of clothes. It was very clear that the snow field was melting from the bottom, not from the sunlight hitting the top. The wind whipped particles and grit about, so I was very glad to have protective eye gear. All of this in late May, as I recall, and just a few days after Etna had spent some time smoking.

Re: driving in Sicily:
http://www.fodors.com/search/results...ving+in+sicily
Bottom line: Drive defensively!

Thank you kja, I was thinking of it being a more hiking kind of mountain and not the RV, cable car etc. Thanks for the heads up. And it sure does sound unworldly.

I'm sure there are hiking trails closer to the base, but I don't have any information on them. It really was otherworldly. I was powerfully aware that the planet on which I live is an active thing, a "living" thing in a very real sense.