In this view, taken from the southern rim of the Valle del Bove, at the head of the "Acqua della Rocca" valley, the relatively unconspicuous cone of Monte Monaco is seen as a densely vegetated hill with a well-defined summit crater, lying in front of the left bend of the Zafferana-Rifugio Sapienza area road. Photo was taken on the evening of 5 May 2000, just a few minutes before a powerful paroxysm at the Southeast Crater at Etna's summit

Mamma Etna's countless children
Monte Monaco
SE flank, 15.055742° E, 37.700461° N
summit elevation: 1425 m

People driving up the winding road from Zafferana to the tourist area of Rifugio Sapienza will hardly note the densely forested cone that stands about 0.5 km east of the entrance to the scenic "Acqua della Rocca" valley. This is Monte Monaco, a horseshoe-shaped cone with a 200 m-diameter crater open to the southeast, rising no more than 60 m above its southern base and only 20 m above its north base. The age of this cone is not known but presumably is several thousand years, as can be judged from the dense vegetation and smoothed morphology.
I have passed dozens of times near Monte Monaco, but never stopped to visit it, and the only photograph that shows appreciable detail (above) was taken in May 2000 from nearly 3 km away.

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Copyright © Boris Behncke, "Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology"