Mount Etna- Can't get much cooler than this!

So we just got back from our excursion to Mount Etna, which was pretty spectacular! We saw some older lava flows dating from the 1800s-2001ish. They had already turned dark and the older ones were breaking down into fertile soil. When the lava erupts, it is very acidic, but over time it breaks down and becomes very fertile which is great for growing sweet fruits and veggies. It becomes "lava sand," which is a mixture of ash and lavaness. You slide down it when you try to walk so instead of hiking up and down craters, we kind of skied. We saw some craters and some "bombs," which are basically big chunks of lava rock that blow out of the craters and land far away. Sometimes they sink into the ground and sometimes they stay on top where you can still see them today. We also saw a cool plant which is native only to Mount Etna called the "Etna Broom." It started snowing on us on our decent- weird puffs of snow not just your normal snowflakes. Anyways, as you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed myself so check out the pictures here :)