Tag Archives: Catania

Diary of a Slow Traveller – Catania, Palermo, Naples – three cities that you must visit

Palermo Cathederal entrance

Palermo Cathedral entrance

 

It would be fair to say that when you think of three cities that you must visit, it’s doubtful that Catania, Palermo and Naples immediately come to mind? However they are each cities with enormous character and personality. Each enjoys a reputation of being dark, dirty, unruly and not safe.

The words of warning are appropriate but so are the reasons to visit!

We took the opportunity to visit all three on our last trip to Italy.

While we had visited Palermo twice before, we had steered clear of Catania and Naples previously, due to the general commentary around safety. So  as I said, on our last visit to Italy we decided to visit both Catania and Naples as well as revisiting Palermo. Infact, we enjoyed each of them so much that we made a return trip to Catania while we were in Sicily and extended our stay in Naples. We also wished we’d allowed a little more time for Palermo.

Each of these cities have their own personalities. Continue reading

The Diary of a Slow Traveller – Sunglasses at Mt Etna

Coffee after our early morning bike ride is part of my weekly ritual.

During the week I was sitting with my riding buddies at coffee lamenting not having sunglasses to deal with the morning glare. It provided me with a great opportunity to talk about how my sunglasses got wrecked at Mt Etna.

Mt Etna

Mt Etna

It was on our two daughters’ last day in Sicily before they headed off for the next part of their holiday. We organized a day tour to Mt Etna. While my favourite person, our youngest daughter and I had been there before, our eldest daughter hadn’t and was super keen so I arranged a tour rather than a self drive. Continue reading

A second visit – Walking the Streets of Catania, Sicily

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Our first visit to Catania was to meet our daughter’s desire to  visit Mt Etna and had been to brief, so we decided on a second visit.  With it came more time to walk the streets.

Our previous visit, a couple of weeks earlier, had made it clear that observing the normal precautions of large cities meant Catania was a safe place to visit.  Sure Catania is a little chaotic and gritty but it has so much to offer the traveller.

Our first visit took us through Catania’s famous fish market and Piazza Duomo and a brief look at the baroque architecture, so this time we decided to venture further afield and fortunately the weather obliged.

Our hotel was a solid 15 minute walk from the bus station, a journey we took in the dark. The nearest we came to feeling unsafe was a reference to the “Ultras” graffitied  on a building. All of the buildings seem to have graffiti of some sort plastered on them, adding to the gritty feeling of the city.

This visit also gave us a chance to try some of the more typical food of the region that did not include horse! In our previous visit we had been looking for quick meals but with it just being the two of us, we had a little more time and were able to sample some amazing seafood pasta from the menu at Cantania Ruffiana. It offered enough choices that we wished we had time for a return visit.

As we sat down a couple of other tourists were surveying the menu. They were a little concerned about the prices, definitely higher than the norm and walked off. As so often is the case “you get what you pay for”. The cover charge, seemingly mandatory in even the cheapest Italian restaurant  included bread, bruschetta and desert, so at €12 for a plate of excellent seafood pasta and €5 for half a litre of house wine (see Travel Tip below) it was good value.

After weeks of Airbnb and boutique styled hotels we felt like we needed a change and  stayed in a well priced business hotel. Decent pillows, a proper double bed and satellite TV giving me a chance to watch a Third Round Replay of the FA Cup live, complete with German commentary! The trade-off was an average breakfast with ordinary coffee.

After our average breakfast and coffee, with our map of Catania and a little research we set out for a day walking the streets. Continue reading

Catania, Sicily – does it really deserve the bad press?

The elephant obelisk - Piazza Duomo

The elephant obelisk – Piazza Duomo

We’d heard so many stories about carjacking and having the contents of your car stolen that in our two previous visits to Sicily the nearest we’d got to Catania was the airport. However my interest lifted after reading Shamus Sillar’s “Sicily it’s not Quite Tuscany” a couple of years ago. In addition, our eldest daughter had made it clear that she wanted to visit Mt Etna in the short time she was with us in Sicily and its much easier to get there from Catania.

Catania is about an hour by train from Siracusa, assuming the train runs on time, which of course ours didn’t! Regional trains not running on time is apparently the norm in Sicily, so rather than getting frustrated, just relax and enjoy the view, unless you are stationary in a tunnel for 10 minutes as we were!

Whether it’s Trip Advisor, the guide books or just general commentary, Catania does not get great press.

Catania like a number of towns in Sicily was destroyed by the Etna eruption of the late 17th Century and rebuilt in an imposing baroque style. Unlike Noto it’s not a rich cream sandstone but much darker, with its buildings being made of darker volcanic stone. A visit on a wet day gives it a closed in feeling even when walking down a wide boulevard of which there are many. It’s very Gotham City! I’m sure this adds to why Catania doesn’t enjoy a great reputation as a place to go.

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Once settled into our apartment and assured by our Airbnb host that we would not be murdered, we ventured out. An early wrong turn Continue reading

Book Review – Sicily, it’s Not Quite Tuscany

As well as the overall sense that Shamus Sillar’s wife Gil is a Saint, Sicily, It’s not Quite Tuscany portrays Sicily in a very contemporary and Australian style. Its also a book from a male perspective something which seems a little rare when writing about Italy these days. Whilst I really enjoyed Penelope Green’s books particularly See Naples and Die, as a male it did not hit the spot in the same way as this book does.

It’s a book about a young married couple who spend a year genuinely soaking up the earthiness of this amazing island in its most basic location, Catania, a city which certainly doesn’t enjoy good press and this book doesn’t really enhance it. Yet you are given a sense that by letting the town wash over you it’s not all bad. There is a rich description of the people, the sights and

Continue reading