CATANIA | SICILY

Discover Catania

Catania is a wonderful city located on the east coast of Sicily at the foot of mysterious Mount Etna and surrounded by a plain where citrus fruits are cultivated.
The Catania province is very important for art tourism in Italy. Together with seven municipalities in the Noto Valley, UNESCO has declared Catania’s historic city centre a World Heritage Site due to its Baroque architecture. In fact, Baroque art is one of the most important artistic features of this city.

In the heart of the city, visit Piazza del Duomo with its beautiful Elephant Fountain, the emblem of Catania. Other locations of great artistic value are Via Etna and Via Dei Crociferi, Via Bellini and Ursino Castle, which houses the Civic Museum. La Via Dei Crociferi with the Church of San Benedetto is perhaps the most beautiful street in eighteenth-century Catania and a rare example of Sicilian Baroque. The Collegiate Basilica in Via Etnea is a masterly example of Catania Baroque. Catania’s cathedral is dedicated to S. Agatha. Its Sicilian Baroque façade was designed by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. Palazzo Biscari is the city’s most important palace. Worth visiting are the houses where Giovanni Verga and Vincenzo Bellini were born. The delicious pasta della Norma is dedicated to Bellini.

Catania city offers lively entertainment for all ages and is much frequented by the young people of the province. In addition to the art treasures that are also an important feature of the towns of Acireale and Tre Castagni, there is a great deal of lovely scenery, especially Etna itself.
Etna is Europe’s largest volcano and offers one of the best opportunities for hiking. The Etna area is popular both for relaxing and sportive holidays. Etna looks like a broken cone that is approximately 2900 metres high with a 165 km perimeter. An excellent hiking trail at its base takes you right round the volcano.
The sea is another great environmental resource of beautiful Catania, offering many possibilities for scuba diving, especially near the dark lava cliffs.

Places worth visiting are Aci Castello with its imposing Aci Castle; Acireale with its Baroque Giuratoria loggia (Town Hall) and the Collegiate Basilica of San Sebastiano, and Aci Trezza, dominated by eight cyclopean stacks: picturesque basalt rocks that according to legend Polyphemus threw at Ulysses when he was escaping. It was the town in which Giovanni Verga set his famous novel I Malavoglia and where Luchino Visconti and Antonio Pietrangeli shot the film La Terra Trema.