Don’t let the perennial mantles of snow that dust the 3,300-metre-high top of hulking Etna fool you; this is Europe’s most active volcanic mountain. Each year it bubbles and broods, spouting sulphur and smoke and the occasional torrent of magma from its quad of calderas and countless cinder cones, inspiring fear and awe in equal measure amongst the Sicilians and sightseers that cluster in Catania below. The ancients attributed this metamorphic instability to the machinations of Typhon, or the belching of Hephaestus’ forges, while today seismologists and volcanologists crowd the mountain with monitoring points in an effort to reveal its deep geological secrets. But its intriguing destructiveness aside, there’s no question that Etna remains an impossibly beautiful sight. It shoulders high over the Straits of Messina, dressed in a cloak of vineyard, birch and beech woods and mist-clad summits, all of which come criss-crossed with hiking and biking trails, not to mention one of the most southerly ski fields on the continent! Most Mount Etna tour guides lead visitors up the south side to Sapienza Refuge to walk round the Silvestri craters, while others approach from Randazzo to the north, viewing the lovely waterfalls of the Alcantra Gorges before the ascent.