The Circumetnea

Going to visit Etna? What is a better way to go all around it by a characteristic train! “the most charming circular journey on the earth”.

Although visitors can catch the train of the narrow-gage Circumetnea railroad in any of its stations, it would be better to choose the station Catania or Giarre (near the Ferrovie dello Stato railroad station), in order to cover the whole train tour without break in continuity.

“O my kind reader, if you go to Catania remember to catch the Circumetnea, and you will agree that it is the most charming circular journey on the earth which takes only seven hours. It runs trough an earthly paradise, here and there meeting the hell. It is a succession of splendid views of the volcano and the sea, of gardens and lava, and verdant valleys, woods of oaks, beeches and pines which provided the material for the fleet of Syracuse”. (E. De Amicis, Ricordi di un viaggio in Sicilia). In that way the writer Edmondo De Amicis described his own experience a century ago.

But still now the Circumetnea leads the visitors to the discovering of a less alien facet of the lofty and superb Etna. The train, often crowded with students and commuters in the rush-hours, trudges on a gradient up to 36 per thousand, and often it stops in the middle of nowhere. It does not astonish anyone anymore: it is only an optional stop which makes possible for a farmer to reach his fields. If you need information or advices, please ask to the personnel on the train. They will help you with pleasure.

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