Alcantara

The Alcantara is a river in northeastern Sicily that flows from the slopes of Mount Etna toward the Ionian Sea. Its name comes from Arabic al-qantara, meaning 'the bridge', a reference to a Roman structure that Arab settlers found near the river mouth when they arrived in the 9th century. The river is celebrated above all for the Gole dell'Alcantara, a dramatic gorge carved through prismatic basalt columns formed by cooling lava and slowly shaped by the current over millennia. Visitors can wade through the gorge on foot, swim in the river, or join kayak excursions — the water stays remarkably cold even in midsummer.