Morning (&Mt. Etna) greeted the Bulldogs.Salvo (passionate vulcanologist) adjacent to an impact crater …. spins some chemistry and physics into the experience.
There is a lot going on in what seems to the layman to be “just another” lava bomb.Each hue, each texture, each bump and/or depression tell part of the story of this particular lava bomb.
The moments after the challenge begins. The challenge is to use small lava bombs to fashion “something” NA.
Senora Luchia watches in silence.
“Beta”“Alpha”Top (for this challenge) “Gamma”Salvo continues to work his magic.Same lava bomb material … but …. dramatically different densities. One porous …one dense.“No my friends … the lava cave is not too far. An “easy” walk of only a few hundred meters.
And a “few very interesting hundred meters” it was. Almost a scree slope (only this was made of lava bomb fragments). Very interesting footing.And so it began!
The “lava cave.”Dogs come to learn that Etna provides a porous surface upon which plants can make a new start.
They made it “look” easy. From personal experience …. it only “looks” that way.Pizza with my friends!Descending into the 2nd longest lava tube in Italy.
Senora Luchia provides a little more than moral support to Angelina.
Lava tube primer inside the first chamber.
A little limbo would have helped with the entry into the second area.Dante and Mario testing their L5S1 stability.The “numinous” nine
The “scheming” six …. err…uhhh …. I mean … The “sagacious” six.
Allora … So there we were …
We came …We saw …We touched…We descended …We climbed (uggh!) …. We listened, watched, and all became part of a very special experience.
Grazie mille Salvo!
Ciao, Alfredo
To embark on an interdisciplinary, capstone study-abroad program in southern Italy and Sicily for Norfolk Academy 8th grade students.