Etna ski trip
You know what helps make an experience truly unique? The paradox.
Like the sea and the mountains, like the heat of lava and the cold of snow. Like taking a plane to go skiing in Sicily when you have the Dolomites just a stone's throw away. Like deciding to do it spur of the moment, a spontaneous day of the week, when you could have organized it properly, with a schedule, an itinerary. How to eat a real Sicilian cannolo dressed in ski clothes at 2500 mt.
"Look, are you free on Wednesday and Thursday?"
"Yes."
"Good, grab your skis we're going to Sicily."
That's how it all started. A plane ticket bought a few days before and in the backpack just ski clothes.
Sicily, in these 48 hours, turned out to be a real trip. But how can you call two days a "trip"? It was more so than many. Usually, you prepare a trip months in advance, carefully planning the place, the different routes.
To go to Mount Etna, on the other hand, everything was different: the weather looked good the next two days, we bought the tickets and let the rest take care of itself. Our only goal was to experience that environment of fire and snow, mountain, and sea.
It's 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Verona's airport is quite small, so it's pretty easy to find each other. Not many people in the airport are walking around with skis on their shoulders and a ticket to Catania in hand: Giulio, Alex, Elisa and Federica. The team gathers, loads the luggage, eats a slice of pizza and off we go.
The flight is short and smooth, no turbulence, no events to report, thankfully.
It is almost colder in Catania than in Verona, weird, we expected different weather, but after all, it is March 6.
It is about midnight when we arrive at the B&B, just enough time to pack our backpacks for the next morning and jump into bed for a short nap.
The morning is bright, the sky is clear, we can only expect great things from this day. After about an hour's drive we reach Etna Nord, where we meet Marco, our guide, a Sicilian working as a ski instructor in Courchevel.
A monster four-wheel-drive truck, that until now we had seen only on TV, arrives to pick us up. The wheels were almost as tall as the girls and our only thoughts were "we are in Sicily for skiing.”
After a while we realize that the forecast was not so true. The wind is the star of the day, gusts reach 70 km/h, at times even reaching 90km/h. At certain moments we are reminded of what Marco, the guide, had said, "here there are often almost Patagonian conditions, a wind that carries you away."
The ascent, despite the wind, is fun, pleasant at times, and after a couple of hours we are on a ridge that will take us to the top of the volcano, or rather, should have done so. The wind and clouds intensify, making the climb increasingly uncomfortable.
The summit is covered with a blanket of gray and white clouds, reducing visibility to almost zero.
Deciding that the summit is unreachable in those conditions, we kick off our heels and start descending, looking for some nice snow and some lower craters, after all, we are still here to ski, right?
The day goes on with ascents, descents, and cannoli.
Sicilian cannoli really have a kick to them, and even more so when eaten at 2500 meters with skis on, if I think about it intensely, I can still taste it. It is about 4 p.m., time to get off, and get back to the airport.
We still have some time, so why not, why not stop at Aci Trezza?
Etna was born right there, 500 million years ago, now there, three stacks remain, the stacks of the cyclops. To think of us, walking with boots in hand and skis on our shoulders, with the sea surrounding us, a quick beer with our legs dangling, this time on a pier.
Paradoxical! In one moment, sea and mountains together.
Four friends, an improvised trip, cannoli, smiles, lots of smiles. In one way or another, these two days left memories that will remain etched in the mind and heart. Images full of contrasts, paradoxes that together harmonize, that make those moments something unique, something special, precisely that make two days a Trip.