Without Charles Riviere coming here to get news website will be updated with lower frequency. Don’t miss mr. Riviere pictures in his page.

This is last evening mr. Charles Riviere comes here to update his news. It was very entertaining to have all news before everyone else and to publish his pictures and his discoveries so it’s a bit sad to me to announce he will leave Sicily tomorrow. Anyway last day comes with another extraordinary new. Do you remember yesterday’s artificial hole in lava skin? Well, today this hole began to fire jets of overheated air. It’s incredible to look this stable and pure columns of fire like those projected by a  soldering-iron. I am sorry he doesn’t have a cable to download pictures and videos because images are rare and precious. In this moment mr. Riviere is updating his news but you’ll have to wait this night or tomorrow morning to see pictures directly from his website. Click this link to look if Etna pictures and videos are uploaded. Luckily two friends just come in hotel. Herr and Frau Krabusch will go almost every day near eruption 2004 and will provide us some fresh news. Tomorrow evening I should be able to publish some of their Etna pictures. In this moment they are here with a full load of pictures on their camera and they are glad to share pictures with me and mr. Riviere. I added two of their 1999 pictures just for sample. These images don’t show current activity. You can see them in Stromboli On Line 1999 eruption website.

mr. Charles Riviere was here just one minute ago. He has extraordinary pictures of lava fall in Valle del Bove. He will try to upload all new images this night, if he can. Meanwhile on his website you can find a lot of new Etna Pictures including an extraordinary image of mr. Alfio Mazzaglia working though an hole directly on red lava! I add this picture to website without his authorization so I hope he will not ask me to sell hotel to pay Copyright! Eruption is mostly tunnelled but on his website you can find best pictures of all lava river. An extraordinary image also shows mr. Charles Riviere walking on crater. Under his feet lava flows down but temperature on black lava skin is now low enough to quietly stand there.  I am happy to unofficially communicate that it seems also Boris Behncke is in this zone in exploration. Due to privacy problems I can’t off course confirm this new. Anyway his girlfriend is really beautiful as he told us last time he was here. To our friend Boris, our best wishes

On September, 15th has arrived in Hotel monsieur Etienn Nicoladze Arnaud. He was here to check Etna activity and possibility of excursion for French trekking groups and, above all, for his personal passion and love for mountains. While in alone excursion at high altitude a fast change in weather conditions surprised him without any refuge in proximity. I remember the heavy bombardment of lightings on hotel, that day. It was a fast and heavy storm. Monsieur Nicoladze didn’t come back in hotel that evening. While in excursion a lightning found him as only way to reach ground. His mobile telephone has exploded when lightning reached him. He had no signs  on his body of that happened. But that one was his last adventure on a mountain. Isabelle Nicoladze, his wife, wrote me a short e-mail in memory of her husband. I wish to copy here a part of her e-mail: “Arnaud adorait ce métier d’accompagnateur qu’il venait de découvrir et il était séduit par le voyage qu’il préparait en Sicile.” (I try to translate: Arnaud loved his new job of guide and he has been allured by travel he prepared in Sicily). To her wife, his daughter Laure and his son Marc we offer this little space in memory of their husband and father.

added two new hotel photos and created a panoramic view of Catania’s gulf from Etna (South view from Hotel Corsaro). New website is in progress and we hope it will be ready during next year. About snow, winter season is beginning