Monte Zoccolaro – Wikipedia

The Monte Zoccolaro It is a relief of volcanic origin placed on the eastern side of Etna, within the park of the same name, in the municipality of Zafferana Etnea, in the province of Catania.

The relief reaches a maximum altitude of 1739 m a.s.l.m. and form, together with other reliefs, defined as a total with the name of Back of the donkey , the terminal section of the sweat wall of the Bove valley.

Its origin would be coeval with the formation of the Bove Valley, following the collapse of the erupting centers of the Tripoglietto I and Tripoglietto II, predecessors of Etna, presumably occurred about 64,000 years ago. ^[first] Mount Zoccolaro and the adjacent tight , which of the ancient erutive complex had to represent the walls, remained standing, closing the depression of the newly-factory valley to the south-east.

The toponym “Zoccolaro” is to be attributed to the regional term “Zucco”, synonymous with a wooden ciocco. In various declinations it is toponym that indicates wooded areas of Sicily, probably frequented for the refueling of firewood. The relief is in fact covered with arboreal vegetation with large specimens of beech, foal poplar, oak, maple, ash, chestnut and ginestra.

A path of about two kilometers reaches the summit of Monte Zoccolaro. The path has an altimetric excursion of about 330 meters, from an altitude of 1472 m a.s.l. At an altitude of 1739 m a.s.l.m. To reach the departure place it is necessary to travel the provincial road Zafferana – Sapienza refuge, and divert to km 6 on the right in the direction of Monte Pomiciaro. Leaving the car in a large square overlooking the Val Calanna, after a short stretch of dirt road begins on the right a steep path that runs alongside a steep cliff.

Along the path it is possible to observe different forms of vegetation, from the poplars to the beech trees, to the gorse, and to the first panoramic point you can admire the Val Calanna entirely covered by the lavas of the 1991 eruption. Traveling the last stretch of the path you get to the goal, reported by a cross; From this point you can enjoy a three hundred and sixty degree panorama, from Etna and the Bove Valley to the north, to the Bay of Giardini Naxos, Taormina and Calabria to the east, to the Ionian coast to the south. Looking to the north, towards the volcano, the eruptive fractures from which the lava flow originated which, after filling Valle del Bove and Val Calanna, came to a few hundred meters from the town of Zafferana Etnea (1992), can be identified. A little more east, however, it is possible to observe the fracture of the eruption that began on 10 May 2008 and ended on July 8, 2009.

The summit of Mount Zoccolaro becomes a privileged destination during the eruptions on the south side of the Etna, allowing hikers who venture there at night to attend one of the most suggestive shows of nature.

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  Panorama of the Bove Valley from Monte Zoccolaro

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  Croce and altar on the top of Monte Zoccolaro.

On September 14, 1948, the day of the exaltation of the Cross, a Zafferanese priest, Father Salvatore Russo, together with a group of young parishioners transported an iron cross to the top of Monte Zoccolaro by means of a truck as far as possible, and then on foot long the path. ^[2] The cross was thus fixed to the ground together with the concision “prayer, action, sacrifice”, and is still the destination of an annual pilgrimage that takes place on the second Sunday of September, as a naturalistic and spiritual occasion. At the foot of the cross, on that date, the Holy Mass at 9.00 am is celebrated, and along the return road, in a farmhouse, the Choral of Zafferana Etnea offers a concert of mountain songs. The cross was relocated in 1978 on the initiative of the then Ski Club “Valle del Bove” of Zafferara and many people participated in the event.

• A. Russo Barbagallo – Russian father: a “zealous, humble and pious priest” – Kiwanis Club Zafferana, September 2008.
• Grey – Etna park, the itineraries – Etna Park Authority, Milan 1993