Climbing a Volcano

During most of my 3 week Italian vacation I stayed in Catania. We had 5 days in Rome and 2 days on the east coast of Sicily but mostly Catania.  At the fish market in Catania we stopped at the tourism office to ask about visiting Mount Etna.  A most entertaining tourism guide gave us directions.  "You go straight," she said, "Always straight."  In a most entertaining sing-song voice she added "Dee dee dee dee deee dee."  To me that meant, the road was not always straight.  When we actually drove to Mount Etna the road was windy as heck.  We took a cable car part way up to the volcano.  The top of the volcano was cloudy today so the views were limited.  Sometimes the clouds temporarily cleared and I could see three peaks.  From the top of the cable car area some people walked and others took a bus and walked after that.  

I didn't take a bus and I didn't walk the entire way.  While Offspring #2 walked up the trail, I sat and rested.  The lava rocks looked like those in front of my fireplace.  I thought the landscape looked lifeless until I looked down and saw a ladybug.  I thought it was dead but I was wrong; it crawled away.

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I sat for nearly an hour waiting for Offspring #2 to return.  In the meantime a pollinator landed near me.  There were no plants to pollinate and I thought this bee was dead but later it crawled away.

I watched the families walking up and down the volcano.  Some were French. Others were German.  Many families burst into song walking together with linked arms..  I thought that was very cute.  I envied their non-arthritic joints.  Eventually Offspring #2 came back.  She had gone as high as to feel rocks that were warm to the touch from the volcano.  When we re-entered the cable car area, a man handed me a small green drink in a cup.  Being a tourist I drank it down without asking.  Holy cow! There was alcohol in that sample!  This was some kind of pistachio after dinner drink.  Wowser!

We took the cable car back down to the parking area where, what to my wondering eyes should appear?  A snowy owl?  What?   Was this real or a side effect of that green drink I had?  This fellow was advertising a raptor show at a city halfway down the volcano.  The snowy owl was complaining loudly.  Who would expect to see a snowy owl on Mount Etna?  Not me, that is for sure.  I suspect this snowy owl was captive and that made me a little sad.

On the drive back down the volcano to Catania we came across a herd of 30 animals.  Ten of the animals were sheep, ten were goats, and ten were dogs.  Three humans accompanied this group.  By the time I turned my camera on the last sheep was trundling by.  "Dee dee dee dee dee," we drove down Mount Etna to Catania again.  Fun day!