Rifugio Citelli – Serracozzo

The trail’s entrance is located on the right, just 100 meters before the Citelli Lodge and marked by specific signs. After a roughly ten-minute walk, hikers come across a small sheepfold. Once they get past it, the trail heads to the left, offering an initial journey through the birches of Etna. Together with three/four channels consisting of large, thick formations of lava smoothed by the river flow, they represent an evidence of the cold climate and considerable presence of water that characterised the area in the past, as resulting from the melting of the glaciers after the glaciation.

After a twenty-minute walk through the woodland, the trail opens to a valley where hikers can observe the interesting phenomenon of a cave-shaped lava formation (it.: ingrottamento) known as the Grotta di Serracozzo, dating back to the 1971 eruption occurred along a fracture. The cave entrance is located upstream of the mouths and consists of a small passage requiring hikers to carefully bend down. The hikers equipped with protective helmets and flashlights may walk into it for about fifty meters.

In front of the mouths, the path regains altitude with a rather steep climb and reaches a panoramic view of the Valle del Bove at an altitude of 2095 m a.s.l. From there, it is possible to observe a series of magmatic dykes, which protect the valley itself from erosion, along a ridge known as Serracozzo following a fairly evident track. Return can be made more easily along the ridge up to 2150 m a.s.l., and then by starting to descend along a wide sandy expanse constituting the alternative trail no. 723A, which crosses the 1928 eruptive mouths, to finally join the main trail at an altitude of 1865 m a.s.l. near the sheepfold. Alternatively, from an altitude of 2150 m a.s.l. it is possible to proceed further on to Rocca della Valle by taking a slight detour at a sandy formation located on the right at an altitude of 2738 m a.s.l. and a 1610-metres walk. It is also possible to reach Pizzi Deneri at an altitude of 2847 m a.s.l. through an additional 740-metres walk. Along this segment, it is possible to observe prominent examples of the so-called “lava cicirara”, i.e., basaltic rocks characterised by large whitish plagioclase crystals. At Rocca della Valle, the rocky route features a particularly challenging average gradient of almost 50%.