But I've had to give up. It's so hot and whoever built this path has gone straight up with a never ending staircase of very high steps. My legs have just stopped cooperating. I got to the top of Etna because I followed the road that the four wheel drive buses were going up and although it was a long way it wasn't so steep. This is torture.
I don't feel too bad though because a German couple half my age have just passed me on the way down and they have given up too.
Funny thing is that whenever I climb a mountain in Greece, Albania or Sicily the only people I meet are Northern Europeans, the Southern Europeans prefer to sit in the shade chatting. That probably explains their economic woes.