That thin lava red line between Etna and the Salinelle di Paternò.

“Italy without Sicily leaves no image in the spirit. It is in Sicily that the key to everything is found. The purity of the contours, the softness of everything, the yielding interchangeability of the colours, the harmonic unity of the sky with the sea and the sea with the earth… Those who have seen them only once will possess them for a lifetime.” This wrote the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on our beloved island and how can you blame him?

Every year thousands and thousands of tourists come to visit us, fascinated by the architectural beauties, by that blurred border between past and present, between history and modernity, that border that conveys a sweet nostalgia for something that, perhaps, has never been experienced. Part of their journey to discover Sicily are also the countless natural beauties that Mother Nature has kindly granted us and among these the wonderful Salinelle di Paternò located in the splendid and rich province of Catania.

The Salinelle di Paternò are still too recently studied. We began to investigate their origins and peculiarities only in the eighteenth century and the hypotheses on their nature have been different. First they were believed to be a manifestation of a fledgling volcano, then they were thought to be the remnant of an ancient endangered volcano. This second theory prevailed over the first because historical evidence tells us about the Salinelle since Roman times, who used them as a spa.

In fact, these sites look like miniature volcanoes but, of course, they are not volcanoes, rather phenomena related to volcanism and major volcanoes such as, for example, Etna. These are fractures and fissures in the earth's crust through which the magma gases find an outlet towards the outside. However, they are not powerful enough to bring up the magma itself, carrying only the minerals and water they find along the way, spewing mud outward.

Modern studies by volcanologists confirm that the Salinelle di Paternò are closely connected to Etna and to the magma that travels in its conduits. They represent precisely the spy that indicates – well in advance – whether the volcano will erupt or not. The Salinelle came into activity (increasing the boiling and the eruption of mud) always just before major eruptions of Etna.
The gases they emit, and the quantities in which they emit them, indicate how rapidly the magma is rising towards the surface. For this reason, on the basis of the Salinelle eruption, the activity of Etna can be roughly predicted. If at the end of an eruption the activity of the mud volcanoes does not end, scientists know that Etna "is not finished yet" and that more can be expected.

The Salinelle are divided into three sites: Le Salinelle dello Stadio, del Fiume and San Biagio. The first is the most accessible, with large car parks where you can leave your car. The other two are located a few kilometres from the town and, although accessible, expert guidance is recommended due to their location. If after this adventure you are not so tired that you just want to rest in one of our luxury villas, the area offers you many places to visit: the Ursino Castle, the Etna park, the Alcantara gorges, Taormina, Caltagirone and its ceramics, up to the splendid province of Syracuse.