Discover Etna on an e-bike
Discover the highest active volcano in Europe by cycling across the unique volcanic landscape that only Mount Etna can offer. Pass by lava caves, forests of birch, pine, oak and centuries-old beech trees. Bike over recent and older lava flows and enjoy the views of beautiful, untouched Sicilian nature. Experience all of this in one, unique, exciting and unmissable e-bike day!
You will meet with your guide at our head office in Milo at an altitude of 720 metres above sea level. After a short briefing on how to use the e-bikes, we will help you to adjust your saddle, fasten your helmet and then off we go to explore the stunning environs of Mount Etna.
After a short stretch on asphalt and having lapped the lava flow of 1928, we will enter the Cubania pine wood. From there we go up towards the Grotta dei Ladroni, also called Grotta della Neve (Snow Cave), an old lava flow cave used in ancient times as a “niviera”: snow was collected and compacted inside the cave during the winter so as to preserve it and use it as ice during the summer.
We will stop briefly and visit the inside of the cave before going onwards to Monti Sartorius, the old volcanic cones which were the location of a powerful eruption in 1865. Riding through the forest you will notice beech trees and white-trunked birch which are unusual in this area as they are typically found in Scandinavia. You will find out the story of how this plant arrived in Sicily and how it continues to survive today on the volcano.
After a break for lunch at a delightful Etna mountain lodge close to the Ragabo pine forest, we will start our trip back, mainly cycling downhill. We will cross the ‘recent’ 2002 lava flow before entering thick oak woods which will take us back to where we started in Milo.