Mount Etna has erupted more than 200 times since records began in 1500 BCE, reshaping Sicily's coastline and burying ancient Greek settlements beneath basalt flows that now form terraced vineyards. The volcano rises 3,357 metres above the Ionian Sea, its summit craters venting sulfur plumes visible from Taormina's ancient theatre 28 kilometres north. UNESCO inscribed the massif as a World Heritage Site in 2013, recognising a geological archive that spans 500,000 years of Mediterranean tectonic history. Today, Rifugio Sapienza at 1,923 metres serves as the departure point for most Etna excursions from Catania, the port city founded by Greek colonists in 729 BCE at the volcano's southern base. Cable cars built in 1998 lift visitors to 2,504 metres, where authorised guides lead small groups across the Valle del Bove—a vast caldera carved by a lateral collapse 64,000 years ago—and up scoria slopes to active summit craters. The ascent traverses four ecological zones, from chestnut forests at 1,200 metres through Etna broom scrubland to a lunar desert of volcanic bombs and fumaroles. Lava tubes formed during the 1792 eruption remain accessible near Grotta del Gelo, Italy's southernmost permanent ice cave. The mountain's fertility underpins its human geography. Volcanic soil supports 133 endemic plant species and vineyards producing Etna Rosso, a red wine from Nerello Mascalese grapes grown on terraces called sciare. Villages ring the lower slopes—Nicolosi, Zafferana Etnea, Linguaglossa—rebuilt repeatedly after eruptions yet sustained by orchards yielding pistachios, blood oranges, and honey from bees foraging on Etna violets. The 1669 flow that destroyed Catania's western districts stopped at the city walls, a basalt tongue now buried beneath Via Etnea's baroque palaces. Modern monitoring by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia tracks magma movement in real time, enabling 59,000 slope residents to coexist with Europe's tallest active volcano. Seasonal closures above 2,900 metres follow seismic swarms, but lower trails and lava caves remain open year-round, anchoring an excursion economy that sustains 14 guide cooperatives and three mountain refuges.