European Adventure 2025 | Sicily | GCP by Nicole

About two weeks before we arrived in Sicily, Mt Etna actually erupted while my Grandma was there on a different cruise line and all cruise ships left earlier than planned. And our tour happened to include going up to the Silvestri Crater.

We did find out on our tour that it is an extremely active volcano that often bubbles and blows off some steam, but nothing the locals worry about much with technology they have now that will let them know beforehand if they need to actually evacuate. We also learned some Godfather trivia on the way up there. It was such a cloudy and rainy day on the way up to Silvestri I was worried we wouldn’t see much, but by the time we made it to the top the sun was shining brightly!

We started off with a cannoli tasting before our walk around the volcano. We had a great time taking in all of the views and walking around. We did see they had a ski lift that was bringing people up even more that looked fun to do, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to do that.

We then started heading to the little town of Taormina. It unfortunately started pouring the minute we arrived, but it was time to grab some lunch anyway so we found a cute little restaurant. Thankfully the rain had moved on by the time we finished so we could go exploring. We also made sure to find Laboratorio Pasticceria Roberto for their famous cannoli, and it did not disappoint! Our guide also mentioned that if we found granita that we had to try it. It ended up being even better than the cannoli. It is basically a version of shaved ice, but made with sugar and fresh fruit puree.