The trail\u2019s entrance is located on the right, just 100 meters before the Citelli Lodge and marked by specific signs. After a roughly ten-minute walk, hikers come across a small sheepfold. Once they get past it, the trail heads to the left, offering an initial journey through the birches of Etna. Together with three\/four channels consisting of large, thick formations of lava smoothed by the river flow, they represent an evidence of the cold climate and considerable presence of water that characterised the area in the past, as resulting from the melting of the glaciers after the glaciation.<\/p>\n
After a twenty-minute walk through the woodland, the trail opens to a valley where hikers can observe the interesting phenomenon of a cave-shaped lava formation (it.: ingrottamento<\/em>) known as the Grotta di Serracozzo, dating back to the 1971 eruption occurred along a fracture. The cave entrance is located upstream of the mouths and consists of a small passage requiring hikers to carefully bend down. The hikers equipped with protective helmets and flashlights may walk into it for about fifty meters.<\/p>\n In front of the mouths, the path regains altitude with a rather steep climb and reaches a panoramic view of the Valle del Bove at an altitude of 2095 m a.s.l. From there, it is possible to observe a series of magmatic dykes, which protect the valley itself from erosion, along a ridge known as Serracozzo following a fairly evident track. Return can be made more easily along the ridge up to 2150 m a.s.l., and then by starting to descend along a wide sandy expanse constituting the alternative trail no. 723A, which crosses the 1928 eruptive mouths, to finally join the main trail at an altitude of 1865 m a.s.l. near the sheepfold. Alternatively, from an altitude of 2150 m a.s.l. it is possible to proceed further on to Rocca della Valle by taking a slight detour at a sandy formation located on the right at an altitude of 2738 m a.s.l. and a 1610-metres walk. It is also possible to reach Pizzi Deneri at an altitude of 2847 m a.s.l. through an additional 740-metres walk. Along this segment, it is possible to observe prominent examples of the so-called \u201clava cicirara<\/em>\u201d, i.e., basaltic rocks characterised by large whitish plagioclase crystals. At Rocca della Valle, the rocky route features a particularly challenging average gradient of almost 50%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The trail\u2019s entrance is located on the right, just 100 meters before the Citelli Lodge and marked by specific signs. After a roughly ten-minute walk, hikers come across a small sheepfold. Once they get past it, the trail heads to the left, offering an initial journey through the birches of Etna. Together with three\/four channels…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2789","sentiero","type-sentiero","status-publish","hentry","description-off"],"acf":{"sentieri":[{"ID":2739,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2019-11-12 15:21:28","post_date_gmt":"2019-11-12 14:21:28","post_content":"It consists of a dirt road built several decades ago by the licensed companies in charge of trasporting tourists by off-road minibuses. It departs from the two ski resorts and ends at the authorised quotas, which have varied through the years according to the risk arising from volcanic activity. The road starts on the south side, at an altitude of 1,910 m, next to the Cableway station and encircles the summit area at an altitude of around 3,000 m a.s.l., keeping the distance from the complex of terminal and sub-terminal craters, thus ensuring a reasonable level of security. It then descends to Piano Provenzana (about 1,800 m) where there is an additional ski resort.\n\nThe track is shared between hikers and motor vehicles. On the south side, it has been modified or even completely remade a number times in the 1970s, 1980s and early 2000s, when the new Escriv\u00e0 de Balaguer<\/em> and Vincenzino Barbagallo <\/em>craters appeared along it and large lava flows cross edits south-descending ridge.\n\nFrom this side, short detours allow hikers to overlook the underlying Valle del Bove in several points, over most of the lava has flowed from the South-East Crater in recent years. The path also allows visiting the aforementioned recently appeared craters and observing, from a relatively close distance, the complex consisting of the two summit chasms, one of which retains the name of Central Crater, and the older 1968 complex of Bocca Nuova and the two sub-terminal North-East and Southeast craters. On the North side, the track has faced much less changes and, with short detour, allows hikers to reach Pizzi Deneri (2,847 m) and the underlying Rocca della Valle (2,738 m). These are extraordinary terraces allowing enjoying a wide panorama that stretches above Valle del Bove and Valle del Leone, both located on the slopes of the volcano. The two ends of the route can be reached by private vehicles and constitute Hiking Base Points.","post_title":"Pista ai Crateri Sommitali","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"pista-ai-crateri-sommitali","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-19 10:50:35","post_modified_gmt":"2020-11-19 09:50:35","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.unescoparcoetna.it\/sentieri\/pista-ai-crateri-sommitali\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"sentiero","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2787,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2019-11-12 15:21:28","post_date_gmt":"2019-11-12 14:21:28","post_content":"The route unfolds on a cart track built by private initiative around 1972 to facilitate the transport of tourists to the high altitudes of the Volcano with motorized vehicles, an activity that was never carried out. Subsequently, the whole area became part of the State Property, which forbade the transit of these vehicles. Once abandoned, the cart track remained intact in some sections, while in others only a faint trace remains.\n\nThe trail begins South-West of Monte Baracca at an altitude of 1,715 8 m a.s.l., along Hiking Trail no. 724. Its surrounding environment is characterised by a notable rare scrub of Etna birch settled on volcanic substrata, and develops for 6,900 m. Above 1,900 m of altitude. The trail\u2019s multiple hairpins turn overcome the steep slopes of the North-Eastern side of Pizzi Deneri and, after passing some impluvia, the track reaches Piano delle Concazze at an altitude of 2,791 m North-West of Pizzi Deneri, in the middle of the lava desert typical of the summit areas of Mount Etna. An average gradient of 15.5% with peaks of 20% makes the \u201cTagara del Leone\u201d among the most difficult hiking trails of Mount Etna.","post_title":"Tagara del Leone","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"tagara-del-leone","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-19 11:18:04","post_modified_gmt":"2020-11-19 10:18:04","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.unescoparcoetna.it\/sentieri\/tagara-del-leone\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"sentiero","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"parcheggi":"","grotte":"","rifugi":[{"ID":2518,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2019-08-30 13:18:09","post_date_gmt":"2019-08-30 11:18:09","post_content":"\n Built for Prof. Salvatore Citelli on the edge of Monte Concazze in 1935, on an area made available by Cav. Patern\u00f2 del Toscano. The refuge and the land were donated to Catania Section of the CAI (Italian Mountaineering Club). It is located at 1741 metres and can be reached via an asphalt road, while until the 1950s, it could only be reached after a three-hour walk from Fornazzo. It has been renovated recently, using funds from Parco dell\u2019Etna and now it has a small restaurant and can also sleep up to 15 people. The refuge is also a starting point for Route 723, or a meeting point for the Sentiero Italia (Grand Italian Trail - 724).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Area: 33S<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Coordinates: 505241E - 4179747N<\/strong><\/p>\n","post_title":"Rifugio Citelli (1730 m s.l.m.)","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"rifugio-citelli-1730-m-s-l-m","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-10-06 15:34:38","post_modified_gmt":"2020-10-06 13:34:38","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.unescoparcoetna.it\/rifugi\/rifugio-citelli-1730-m-s-l-m\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"rifugi","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"galleria":false,"lunghezza":"8","dislivello_massimo":"1080","tempo_di_percorrenza":"5-6 ore","difficolta":"medio-alto\/E","percorribilita":"ottima (trekking\/bici)","informazioni_utili":"Ogni diramazione dal percorso principale \u00e8 indicata dalla caratteristica segnaletica del Club Alpino Italiano mentre lungo tutta la pista \u00e8 possibile trovare diversi segni di conforto a suggerire la direzione da seguire. Si consiglia a tutti gli escursionisti di non uscire dal percorso segnalato, di non gettare rifiuti e di non recare disturbo a vegetazione e\/o animali.","relation":"7849414","id_sentiero":"723 \u2013 723A","naturalistici":"","panoramici":"","punti_generici":"","colore":"","punto_di_partenza":{"sentiero_di_partenza":false,"altezza_punto_di_partenza":""},"punto_di_arrivo":{"sentiero_di_arrivo":false,"altezza_punto_di_arrivo":""}},"yoast_head":"\n