May 12 - 24, 2018
Amalfi coast, volcano route, Aeolian islands
Climbing active volcanoes : Stromboli, Vulcano, mt. Etna, Vesuvius and many other things.
Well as mentioned last year , the solo trek was to happen just the time & needed to figure out things, besides as always it was last minute and really glad it went through. For the time frame had very limited options, had been to Italy long time back ( almost 10 years) and mainly Florence etc. side as a typical tourist thing. This was exploring volcanic route hiking and some city exploring and REI did really good plus the two enthu. guides & group made it more fun.
Flight and connections worked out well, reached Naples late in the evening, the taxi driver was really nice guy explaining things, place and mentioned there is lot of Srilankan, Indian population in area. Later, on evening stroll did meet " Madhu" srilankan lady and was really nice talking to her. Place is really vibrant with piazza , palace, many other surrounding attractions first sighting of Mt.Vesuvius and shopping complex. Next morning explored various sites and group was really good (thanks for all the laughter) had our dinner together and embarked on the journey.
The itinerary anyone can follow, couple highlights for the places :
Capri :- Boat ride to Capri to explore and hike around the island. Weather was really nice, little drizzle and later overcast. The night exploring of underground Naples was really great & our guide did an amazing job. It is really nice work done by volunteers to preserve history and maintain, clean up the underground wells.
Agerola canyon hiking met really nice lady "Maria" busy planting corn in her yard. The lemoncello factory tour individual was very sincere and honest & it just reflected in all his explanations and was great way to end the hike. It was nice Pizza making in the restaurant and under the guidance of chef all did great. It was gracious of him to allow us in his kitchen (haha, on the hind side it was good he fed us before we were to do our experiments :) )
Path of Gods : Apt name , perfect day and weather , the sea fog just rolled up and made the place little magical. Long way down the stairs was the fun part to reach the town. Positano, very vibrant place , many people just chilling out by waterside or taking boat ride to explore Amalfi coast.
Just short hop to Amalfi : interesting was the church, the only paper mill of original 17 still making handmade paper & still supplies that to Vatican was nice to see while waited for transport.
Quick walk up Vesuvius and exploring Crater with Pompeii's main street in sight and destruction that
was caused was nice way to get perspective of how it might have happened. The run down was even further cool. Later just explored Pompeii area, Lala was enthusiastic and full of information.
Cruise ship for Sicily to get to various islands was nice & early morning board walk around was neat. Cefalu was nice stop for boarding ferry to
Vulcano island. The town is full of sulphur fumes, mud pools, black sand beaches given active area. The hike up the Vulcano was nice best part being the walk down switch backs amidst sulphur vents, run down mountain was great. Besides early morning run on beach was really a thing.
Stromboli : Night hiking was supposed to be later in the day hence took RIB around the island, boat driver was really skilled individual and was great to explore the small town and the light house area, many jelly fish and marine life in the area. Surprisingly the island has plenty fig trees. Given Stromboli is very active volcano and had generated Tsunami post massive landslide, now the region has lot of monitoring devices to keep a tab. As it is called "Iddu" : he was really gracious to us, the moment we reached the top just in time for sunset it gave big growling and fiery welcome show, and never stopped post that.Our head guide was nice. Being last group we got plenty time on mountain top and was nice to see stars, hear loud rumbling of volcano, the fiery show, far out twinkling lights on land, cool breeze and amidst all this stillness & calmness. The walk down is in steep scree field with headlamps( had taken gaiters didn't use them, no particular reason, just didn't want to). Reached the town around 11.30.
The morning run in town and beach is nice area, people are really nice. the green fleet comes to town for supplying water. Besides the other hike to restaurant can lead you to place to watch the fiery show & that walk by ocean side is equally great.
Castelmola & Taormina are beautiful towns and hiking from one to other is nice. Drive down further
takes you to mount Etna region. One has to hike with vulcanologist on top of this active volcano, with massive craters, smouldering rims with sulphur vents, occasional growling , hissing of mountain. Some snow fields to cross and many scree fields. The area can get very windy and with the mist rolling from down below can get cooler. Standing at 11.000 feet elevation, it was really nice to walk on it.
Catania has lots of history and place is nice to explore, the evening / night walk around town was great. Never to forget the Gelato place in town [world's best :) per U know who :) ] It was indeed good. The underground river is nice besides all great buildings.
The Aeolian island became famous after the Stromboli movie and now mostly as ppl want to climb very active volcanoes. Many places and walks are surrounded by natural perfumes with many flowering plants with nice smell. The capers, loquat fruit, pistachios and region has many other delicacies. Sicily has influence of many from Greek, Romans, English, Arabs and is visible at places. People are really proud being Sicilian. It was overall short & cool visit to the region to explore couple things. Hiking on all active volcanoes was an experience in itself. The open air boat ride to the Aeolian islands is a must.
Beautiful place, people, food, nice beaches. Our guides did really great in making this enjoyable.
With 100 some miles of leg work back to place called home ....
Pictures posed on instagram earlier 24th 2018: Instagram :
Italy Volcano Route album :-
Amalfi coast, volcano route, Aeolian islands
Climbing active volcanoes : Stromboli, Vulcano, mt. Etna, Vesuvius and many other things.
Well as mentioned last year , the solo trek was to happen just the time & needed to figure out things, besides as always it was last minute and really glad it went through. For the time frame had very limited options, had been to Italy long time back ( almost 10 years) and mainly Florence etc. side as a typical tourist thing. This was exploring volcanic route hiking and some city exploring and REI did really good plus the two enthu. guides & group made it more fun.
Flight and connections worked out well, reached Naples late in the evening, the taxi driver was really nice guy explaining things, place and mentioned there is lot of Srilankan, Indian population in area. Later, on evening stroll did meet " Madhu" srilankan lady and was really nice talking to her. Place is really vibrant with piazza , palace, many other surrounding attractions first sighting of Mt.Vesuvius and shopping complex. Next morning explored various sites and group was really good (thanks for all the laughter) had our dinner together and embarked on the journey.
The itinerary anyone can follow, couple highlights for the places :
Capri :- Boat ride to Capri to explore and hike around the island. Weather was really nice, little drizzle and later overcast. The night exploring of underground Naples was really great & our guide did an amazing job. It is really nice work done by volunteers to preserve history and maintain, clean up the underground wells.
Agerola canyon hiking met really nice lady "Maria" busy planting corn in her yard. The lemoncello factory tour individual was very sincere and honest & it just reflected in all his explanations and was great way to end the hike. It was nice Pizza making in the restaurant and under the guidance of chef all did great. It was gracious of him to allow us in his kitchen (haha, on the hind side it was good he fed us before we were to do our experiments :) )
Just short hop to Amalfi : interesting was the church, the only paper mill of original 17 still making handmade paper & still supplies that to Vatican was nice to see while waited for transport.
Quick walk up Vesuvius and exploring Crater with Pompeii's main street in sight and destruction that
Cruise ship for Sicily to get to various islands was nice & early morning board walk around was neat. Cefalu was nice stop for boarding ferry to
Vulcano island. The town is full of sulphur fumes, mud pools, black sand beaches given active area. The hike up the Vulcano was nice best part being the walk down switch backs amidst sulphur vents, run down mountain was great. Besides early morning run on beach was really a thing.
Stromboli : Night hiking was supposed to be later in the day hence took RIB around the island, boat driver was really skilled individual and was great to explore the small town and the light house area, many jelly fish and marine life in the area. Surprisingly the island has plenty fig trees. Given Stromboli is very active volcano and had generated Tsunami post massive landslide, now the region has lot of monitoring devices to keep a tab. As it is called "Iddu" : he was really gracious to us, the moment we reached the top just in time for sunset it gave big growling and fiery welcome show, and never stopped post that.Our head guide was nice. Being last group we got plenty time on mountain top and was nice to see stars, hear loud rumbling of volcano, the fiery show, far out twinkling lights on land, cool breeze and amidst all this stillness & calmness. The walk down is in steep scree field with headlamps( had taken gaiters didn't use them, no particular reason, just didn't want to). Reached the town around 11.30.The morning run in town and beach is nice area, people are really nice. the green fleet comes to town for supplying water. Besides the other hike to restaurant can lead you to place to watch the fiery show & that walk by ocean side is equally great.
Castelmola & Taormina are beautiful towns and hiking from one to other is nice. Drive down further
Catania has lots of history and place is nice to explore, the evening / night walk around town was great. Never to forget the Gelato place in town [world's best :) per U know who :) ] It was indeed good. The underground river is nice besides all great buildings.
The Aeolian island became famous after the Stromboli movie and now mostly as ppl want to climb very active volcanoes. Many places and walks are surrounded by natural perfumes with many flowering plants with nice smell. The capers, loquat fruit, pistachios and region has many other delicacies. Sicily has influence of many from Greek, Romans, English, Arabs and is visible at places. People are really proud being Sicilian. It was overall short & cool visit to the region to explore couple things. Hiking on all active volcanoes was an experience in itself. The open air boat ride to the Aeolian islands is a must.
Beautiful place, people, food, nice beaches. Our guides did really great in making this enjoyable.
With 100 some miles of leg work back to place called home ....
Pictures posed on instagram earlier 24th 2018: Instagram :
Italy Volcano Route album :-
