Mount Etna
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Mount Etna, 2013); Parco Dell'Etna, Established 1987 · Nicolosi, Sicily
The highest active volcano in Europe and one of the busiest on earth, rising straight out of the Sicilian coastal plain to somewhere around 3,350 metres, a figure that genuinely changes from year to year because the summit craters build and collapse. It erupts most years and 2026 has been a loud one, with lava fountains from the Voragine crater closing Catania airport twice and the aviation alert going red in September. Visitors come up the southern side to Rifugio Sapienza at about 1,900 metres, where a cable car climbs to 2,500 and four-wheel-drive buses with volcanological guides continue toward the summit zone. You may walk freely up to 2,500 metres, need a licensed guide between there and 2,750, and may not go higher at all on that side. Below the lifts the Silvestri craters, a pair of vents from 1892, sit at the car park and cost nothing. It is a working volcano, so every price, height and altitude limit here is provisional.
Piazzale Rifugio Sapienza, Nicolosi, Sicily, 95030, Italy
The mountain is open; the infrastructure is not always. The cable car runs year round from about 08:30, with last ascents in the middle of the afternoon and earlier closing in winter, and shuts without notice for wind, snow or volcanic activity. Free trails and the Silvestri craters have no hours. Access limits above 2,500 metres are set by municipal ordinance and change with the eruption.