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Sicily gets fairly praised. The Mediterranean weather is always a trigger for choosing the island as the holiday destination and the delicious wines complete the picture of a magnificent vacation. But Sicily has much more stored for visitors and its subsidies are quite amazing.

A breathtaking natural monument, the Alcantara gorge, makes pretty clear what nature is capable of. The main culprit for this unexpected beauty is Mount Etna and the waters running off its slopes. Flowing down to the southern regions of the Nebrodi Mountains, these waters enable an accurate proof of nature’s incomparable beauty. The name comes from Arab and it originates from “al qantara” which is translated “the bridge”, an allusion to a Roman span.

The Alcantara River is equally renowned for being one of the rivers that has water all year long. The process of the gorge’s creation involved lava coming from the eruption of one of Etna’s offshoot. As the lava reached the river, it cooled much faster than it would have normally done which turned it into crystallized columns. As decades passed, the river dug its way into the columns and created a channel through them. Gole dell’Alcantara is only one example of impressive ravine that resulted as years went by.

The depth of the canyon is somewhere around 65 meters and the water remains cool all year long. The river begins its journey somewhere near Floresta, the highest town in Sicily with an altitude reaching 1300 meters above sea level.

Not all of Sicily’s canyons are made of lava stone. Diversity manifests even when nature takes over. If man’s actions can somehow be under control, it is an absolute fact that nature has its own will. And this is a will that we may never know when is going to express itself. It is the sheer reason why nature’s creations are both spectacular and quite unpredictable.