Sicily – Part 3

Gole Alcantara, the Alcantara Gorges, is an absolutely natural gem of a botanical and geological park. We had read about it in a Danish tourist book about Sicily! 🙂 Initially it was formed by the Alcantara River, thousands of years ago. At some time the river was blocked by lava streams from Etna.

The cold water cooled down the lava which then made the impressive patterns in the rocks we see now. Unbelievable. Then it seems nobody noticed for many years until a local businessman found it, made the gorge accessible and turned it into a tourist attraction with trekking, picnic areas and body rafting . First of all, the most interesting is walking upstream through the ice cold – yiiiiiii!!! 😉 – water into the deep, dark gorge. But it was also great to get close to many of the Sicilian plants. A small bonus trip, just 30 minutes from Taormina.