Etna parkrun

South Sicily, North of Catania, South of Palermo and not actually up the mountain

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Mt Etna, as seen from the course

Etna parkrun has a view of the mountain, rather than actually taking you up or round it (spoiler - the view is above). Instead, it’s in the Pineta Monti Rossi (Red Pine Mountain). I stayed at Villa Michelangelo, up the hill from the town of Nicolosi, and within walking distance, about a mile from the start.

The start is easy to find, so long as you know you can’t get to many of the paths from the road. You need to head to the top left corner, or bottom left if coming from town and a bit braver (the route from there will take you through the forest, so I’d recommend downloading a map to be sure). From the top left, there’s a large parking area/roundabout, with a path leading uphill from your left. The start is up there and marked on Google maps, though that doesn’t show you the paths through the woods. If you download maps to the smartphone app maps.me, that will also show you the relevant paths.

Parking very near the start - take the path not shown off to the left (and slightly back on yourself) here

Etna parkrun route: Start on the left, go clockwise. 800m in take the inner loop first (right at the tree stump), back through the start and round the outer loop (left at the tree stump)

The parkrun route is permanently marked, though you need to know what to look for. And you do a tiny loop round a tree at the start and finish. From the start, therefore, you head anti-clockwise for 10m, round the tree and back on yourself onto the route. About 800m in there’s a tree stump with 1 and 2 on it, with arrows pointing you in the right direction for those two laps. Right on lap one takes you into the inner loop, round the edge of a volcanic crater. The turns to go round the middle section are marked but sharp - a short steep ascent on the first right turn, a left turn I would have missed had I not been following someone, and a short steep descent to head away from the crater. One marshal on course manfully called out from the descent to get us to turn right into the crater, while also guiding people out of the inner loop.

Early on the route and into the inner crater

Aside from that it’s pretty straightforward, though you should keep an eye on your footing, particularly on the first section - one part in particular was only wide enough for one person, though it’ll probably be repaired at some point. The views are so good, too, that you need to make sure you’re running round, not gazing out and running off down the hill.

After the inner crater, you pop out and gain a view of Mt Etna. I had already seen the mountain on my walk up, but there’s something special about gaining a view through forward movement. The course constantly gives you something to look at, whether it’s the trees all around on the more enclosed areas, or the crater, the mountain or the sea from the other side of the route.

These trees have had harder days than this sunny, cool, still morning

Some more views from the course.

Some of Etna parkrun's changing views

If you come to explore on a non-parkrun day you should find the arrows okay. You’ll also find a turnaround arrow on a tree in the start/finish area. That’s for one last twist - you run past the finish, still going clockwise, then turnaround round the tree with the sign on, and run back to the finish. One of my fellow tourists was kind enough to stand near the finish and tell us that, which was extremely useful. Several people thought they’d finished only to get cajoled into the last few metres - it doesn’t matter, but it’s nice to know what you’re doing.

Afterwards I wandered uphill with a couple from Sussex, for a better view of the mountain, and I took myself back to the other side of the course because everyone was talking about the sea view, and I’d missed it. Captured it on camera, but without realising. There’s a lot to look at, though, while staying on the course, avoiding the bigger stones and the tree roots - the worst are just after the start, on a downhill section.

Me, laying claim to some turf

The sea view, from higher up than the course

The route doesn’t involve as much elevation as some - my Garmin reckoned on 40m, though it’s always a bit approximate. It never quite lets you go, undulating regularly, but there are some good downhill sections to stretch out on, as well as some testing ups. One of the runners way ahead of me confessed to walking the steep incline up into the crater - it’s short, but horrible. And if he can break a habit of never walking, you should feel no worries about doing so.

Results from Etna parkrun #140, 4/3/23. 24 finishers.