Me and my partner went on the Etna morning tour on the 16th August.

Pick up was at 7.25 from the square near the amphitheatre. Our tour guide Monica arrived and we joined a tour with around 20 Italians. We were slightly apprehensive of the amount of English that would be covered in the tour at this point.

We drove about an hour to get there, and all along the way information was given in Italian, and our tour guide made sure at each point to relay this information to us in English too.

The tour took us up to a lower crater, which was stunning. Cloud did come in fairly early however, so I would advise taking a morning tour so as to not miss the amzing views. We were given a lot of fascinating information and in depth detail about various lava flows and eruptions, the effect that they had had in the surround area and towns, along with some funny local stories and legends.

After this we stopped at a scenic viewpoint into a valley where the longest lasting lava flow had occurred, and the travelled down to a lava cave. The lava cave is situated in some beautiful woodland, and we ventured in with hard hats and torches to view the cave, whilst being educated about the formation of such caves. The cave itself is roughly 50m deep, so don't expect a huge cave network with hours of exploring.

We then went down to a village with tasting of local farm produce, of which the sweet garlic and local wines and spirits were great and swiftly purchased.

Throughout we were made to feel included and part of the tour even though we were the only English speaking members of the group. Was a brilliant trip out, with us returning around 2 or 3pm.

Excellent tour and many great memories.

We had chosen the Morning Tour to Etna with pick-up starting at 08:00... during our drive up our tour guide Luigi started to explain a lot of historical and scientific information about volcanoes, not just Etna but volcanoes across the world.

We totally enjoyed this tour mostly because Luigi was so good at explaining! You could sense his enthusiasm and passion for this subject. Highly recommended!