We didn’t need to find the train station this morning because there is very limited train service on Sundays; no train into Catania until late afternoon today. I’m glad we knew that before hiking to the train station. We thought maybe we were going to have to pay 25+ euros to take a taxi into the old part of Catania. However, upon talking with the front desk folks at the hotel, we did learn that there was some bus service on Sunday with bus stops right outside the hotel. To get tickets, though, we needed to walk about 700 meters down the main road outside the hotel to a tobacconist shop, where bus tickets are sold. After a 10-minute walk, we found the shop, purchased our bus tickets, 1 euro for each ticket. That’s certainly a lot more affordable than taxi fare. Our wait for the bus was going to be about 25 minutes, so we found a little shade around the corner from the bus stop. We boarded the bus and some locals helped us to understand that our tickets needed to be inserted into a machine on the bus. Tickets are good for 90 minutes, and the machine time stamps the ticket. We find that locals are always more than willing to help and with hand gestures and smiles, we can get the gist of what they are telling us. Riding the local transportation is always fun and the bus route took us through lots of the outskirts of Catania and then through much of the downtown area. It’s a great way to see the city and what the neighborhoods are like.
Catania is the second largest city in Sicily and the 7th largest Italian city, having about 1.1 million in the metropolitan area. The city is at the base of Mt. Etna and as I learned, this is both a blessing and a curse. The volcano has wiped out the city several times, but the volcanic ash creates good soil and so there are lots of vineyards around. In addition to volcanoes, the area has been wiped out by earthquakes, most recently in 1693. After that, during the 18th century, the city was rebuilt in the Baroque architectural style, what has become known as Sicilian Baroque. At that time, Catania was under Spanish rule. The city is also known as the “black city” because of the lava rock that is so present everywhere.
We got off the bus at the bus terminus and just started walking. Although we had a map, it wasn’t very helpful. At one point, we were looking at the map on some little side street and a guy walked by and said, “forget the map, just get lost in the city.” That was probably very good advice.
The Baroque architecture is quite something. Many buildings have very ornate decorations with figures and faces. This was the first ornate building we saw right across from the bus terminus. What fun to look for all the weird figures and faces. This is the Palazzo Biscari, the biggest Baroque palace in the city, whose beauty was celebrated by Goethe.
We then passed by a very interesting church that didn’t look much like a church. Again, a very ornately adorned Baroque exterior.
We then came to the church of the nuns’ convent of St. Agatha. This was a lovely little church across from the main cathedral.
The main cathedral is the Duomo di Catania dedicated to St. Agatha. It is a glorious Baroque church rebuilt in 1711 after the earthquake of 1693 that wiped out the city. It has a lovely bell tower and clock. The statuary on the outside is really beautiful, with St. Agatha in prime location. Just as we were looking inside, a mass began, this being Sunday. The organ was beautiful and the choir sounded wonderful.
While we were out in the Piazza di Duomo, some people asked us to take their photo in front of the cathedral. Lo and behold, one of the men in the group was from Buffalo, NY. It truly is a small world.
In the Piazza di Duomo is the u Liotru, the elephant statue and fountain. An elephant is the symbol of Catania and there are many stories as to how this symbol came about. There is much folklore and no one really knows the truth. The fountain marks the city center midway between the market and the main street, the huge monastery, now converted into a university and the port.
After visiting St. Agatha, we found the Tourist Service shop. We have been talking with a tourist agent in our hotel about a tour to Taormina and other locales. That agent, Tanya, was going to be working in the office Sunday. We had talked with her twice at the hotel and still hadn’t finalized our tour, so we wanted to see her and finally book our tour. We transacted our business with Tanya, who was quite happy to see us and take our booking.
After that, we stopped in the tourist information office for an additional map, and then just wandered around a little. One of the things that struck me is the graffiti on all the buildings along many of the side streets. It’s everywhere. We then ventured into Piazza Vincenzo Bellini and found the Teatro Bellini, a magnificent opera house constructed in honor of local son and famous composer Vincenzo Bellini. The opera house was inaugurated on 31 May 1890 with a performance of the composer’s masterwork, Norma. The theater seats 1,200. I wish we had been able to take a tour, but alas, we couldn’t as their scheduled had changed. What a fantastic building, though.
We then found the Piazza Universit where some of Catania University is housed. It was ringed by wonderful buildings, the Palazzo degli Studi and the Siculorum Gymnasium. Inside the gymnasium is a wonderful inner courtyard. The floor was laid out in a beautiful pattern made all from lava.
After that, we were running out of steam. Again, it was a hot/humid day and the sun was scorching. Truth be told, we made our way around by picking streets with the most shade. And in all the piazzas, wherever there was any shade, that’s where everyone was standing taking pictures and just keeping out of the sun.
We found an outdoor cafe down a shady side street and under a tree. Fortunately, we were able to be seated fairly quickly. It was a busy place. What amazed me was that in the early afternoon on a very hot day, people were eating mountains of pasta and very large meals. That wasn’t for us so we ordered something a little more refreshing, insalata caprese and insalata Sicilian, both tomato-based salads. The Sicilian salad had one kind of tomato and was dressed in salted ricotta sprinkled with Parmesan. The caprese had cherry tomatoes and wonderful hunks of mozzarella bufala. We shared the salads; both were very yummy.
Here are a few other photos of sights around Catania.
After lunch we decided that we had seen many of the major sights and should find our way back to the bus station. I was sure we wouldn’t reach the station in time for a bus at around 2:30, so we didn’t rush back to the terminus. We got to the terminus and saw that the bus 524 was listed, but there weren’t any times posted. Christine went to the office and asked. Just as she was talking to a guy, I realized that we didn’t want the 524 bus, we needed to get on the 534 bus, which was sitting right in front of me. At the same time I was rushing over to Christine to tell her of my error in bus numbers, the helpful bus guy was also telling her about 534. He helped us get our tickets from the machine. We were on the bus just a minute before it pulled out. If that hadn’t worked out, we would have had to wait for about 2 hours for the next bus, so we were quite relieved.
After getting back to our hotel, we took a dip in the sea. I’ve been thinking that we see the Mediterranean Sea, but what we see and swim in here in Catania is the Ionian Sea. After a few hours out in the hot day, it was a relief to get into the sea.
We enjoyed another light dinner in our room. At breakfast, we pilfered some sliced meat and cheese from the breakfast bar to use for our dinner. Christine has been able to use some other things we have purchased and carried around with us, or taken from the breakfast room, to make sufficient meals for us. Sitting by our window watching dusk turn to night over the Ionian Sea has been quite lovely. The trees around our courtyard attract birds settling in for the night so there is a lot of bird chatter going on.
So our adventure in to Catania was successful and we had a great day. Tomorrow we’re off to Taormina and a couple of other villages. Should be fun.