Etna Volcanic Hike & Wine

Etna Volcanic Hike & Wine

The vine in front of you is 200 years old and has never been grafted — because the phylloxera louse that destroyed every vineyard in France in the 1880s couldn't swim through volcanic sand. Etna erupts 14 times a year, and each lava flow creates entirely different soil: two plots 300 meters apart taste like different grape varieties. A Belgian wine broker named Frank Cornelissen drove here in 1997 after one sip, bought land, and the locals called him "Il Belga Pazzo" — the Crazy Belgian. Walk his terraces, ride a cable car to 2,900m of active crater, then taste two wines from neighboring lava flows and feel the geological difference in the glass.