Catania, Etna and around

Bang in the middle of the Ionian coast, with Mount Etna looming high above it, Catania is Sicily’s second-largest city, a major port and transport hub and a thriving commercial centre. Its airport is the point of arrival for many of the island’s foreign visitors, though few stay long. Those who do are usually pleasantly surprised, however. An intensely vibrant city, Catania has a uniformly grand appearance, its historic centre full of jaunty Baroque buildings of black lava and creamy white limestone built in the wake of the 1693 earthquake that wrecked the whole region. There’s an iconic fish market, plenty of good restaurants, an easy-going drinking and nightlife scene and just enough historical sights to pique your interest without being overwhelming.

The jagged volcanic coast to the north sustains a series of small resort-villages around the Baroque town of Acireale, while to the south the main driving routes to Siracusa, Ragusa and Enna cross the fertile plain of the Piana di Catania. This rich agricultural region was known to the Greeks as the Laestrygonian Fields after the Laestrygonians, a race of cannibals who devoured several of Odysseus’s crew. It’s a pretty enough ride through the flat, windmill-dotted fields, but the only detour of interest is to the archeological museum at Lentini, one of the earliest Greek colonies to be founded in Sicily.

There’s absolutely no mistaking the single biggest draw in the province, namely Mount Etna, Europe’s highest volcano, whose foothills start a few kilometres north of Catania. It’s still highly active and its massive presence dominates the whole of this part of the coast, with every town and village in the neighbourhood built at least partly from the lava that it periodically ejects. A road and a small single-track railway, the Ferrovia Circumetnea, circumnavigate the lower slopes, passing through a series of hardy towns, such as Randazzo, almost foolishly situated in the shadow of the volcano and surrounded by swirls of black volcanic rock. Meanwhile, higher villages and ski stations like Nicolosi and the Rifugio Sapienza are the base for escorted tours and ascents to the summit craters. Depending on the weather and volcanic conditions, you should be able to experience the heights of Etna at first-hand between April and May and September to October.

PESCHERIA, CATANIA

Highlights

1 Pescheria, Catania Eat a sea urchin, buy some swordfish, have spaghetti and clams for lunch – Catania’s raucous fish market is Sicily’s best.

2 Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania Enjoy a night at the opera with the music of Catania’s most famous native son.

3 The ascent of Etna The smoking cone of Etna dominates much of eastern Sicily, and invites an ascent of its blackened upper slopes, not least for the awesome views.

4 Ferrovia Circumetnea A day-trip by public transport that takes some beating – riding the volcano-train for over 100km around the base of Mount Etna.

5 Nicolosi The best base on Etna’s south side, ideal for winter skiing or summer walking.

6 Castello Nelson, Bronte An English country house with a fascinating history, deep in the Sicilian countryside.

< Back to Catania, Etna and around

Catania

First impressions don’t say much at all for CATANIA – there’s heavy industry here, a large port and some depressing suburbs, while the traffic-choked city centre is largely constructed from suffocating, black-grey volcanic stone. Indeed, the influence of Etna is pervasive, with the main thoroughfare named after the volcano, which looms threateningly just to the north. Yet Catania is well worth a day or two’s visit. It is first and foremost a commercial place, boasting arguably the island’s best two markets, while if you look beyond the darkened shadows of the buildings you’ll detect some of the finest Baroque architecture in Sicily. A large student population enlivens the centre, and the thronged piazzas and bars make for one of the island’s most exuberant evening promenades. In early February Catania devotes itself to celebrating the festival of its patron, Saint Agatha, with a passion and intensity diminished not a jot by the fact that this is Sicily’s most outward-looking, contemporary and international city.

Catania is a major transport terminus, with buses (from the central bus station and the airport) to just about every major destination on the island. The train service is less comprehensive, though the lines south to Siracusa and north to Taormina and Messina are useful. If you’re Etna-bound by public transport you’ll have to leave from Catania itself – drivers usually choose to see the volcano from the prettier towns and villages to the north. You could see the whole of central Catania in a busy day’s strolling, but the city really deserves more time if you can spare it. Most of the sights are confined within a small area, centred on Piazza del Duomo and the cathedral, from where the wide main avenue, Via Etnea, steams off to the north up to the city’s Bellini gardens. Fish market and castle lie to the south, and the landmark Teatro Bellini to the east. Much of this entire area, sections of Via Etnea included, is closed to traffic, so walking around is quite enjoyable, especially at night when certain areas become bar and café zones.

STAYING SAFE IN CATANIA

Of all Sicilian cities, Catania has the worst reputation for petty crime. Hoteliers and locals often warn tourists to be on their guard against pickpockets and, without being too alarmist, it doesn’t do any harm to follow their advice. If you’re happy with security at your hotel, leave your passport and valuables there before going out. Be careful on your own at night, and don’t flash your cash, phones or cameras in run-down areas or in the middle of the teeming markets.

Brief history

Some of the island’s first Greek colonists, probably Chalcidinians from Naxos, settled the site as early as 729 BC, becoming so influential that their laws were eventually adopted by all the Ionian colonies of Magna Graecia. Later, the city was among the first to fall to the Romans, under whom it prospered greatly. Unusually for Sicily, Catania’s surviving ancient relics are all Roman (albeit lava-encrusted, after successive historic eruptions). In the early Christian period Catania witnessed the martyrdom of Agatha, who, having rejected the improper advances of the praetor, Quintianus, was put to death in 252. She was later canonized (becoming the patron saint of Catania), and it was her miraculous intervention that reputedly saved the city from complete volcanic destruction in the seventeenth century. Even with the saint’s protection, Catania has had its fair share of disasters: Etna erupted in 1669, engulfing the city in lava, while the great earthquake of 1693 devastated the whole of southeastern Sicily. But making full use of the lava as building material, the eighteenth-century architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini gave central Catania a lofty, noble air that endures today.

Piazza del Duomo

Piazza del Duomo is one of Sicily’s most elegant Baroque piazzas, rebuilt completely in the first half of the eighteenth century by the Palermitan Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, who was made Catania’s municipal architect in 1730. With the majestic cathedral as his starting point, he produced a dramatic open space – kept traffic-free today – softened by the addition of a central fountain, no less than a lava elephant supporting an Egyptian obelisk on its back. The elephant has been the city’s symbol since at least the thirteenth century, a talismanic protection against Etna eruptions, and this one also features an inscription, Agatina MSSHDEPL – an acronym for “The mind of St Agatha is sane and spontaneous, honouring God and liberating the city”.

The Duomo

Piazza Duomo • Daily 9am–noon & 4–6pm

Agatha herself is both Catania’s patron saint and the dedicatee of Vaccarini’s grandest project, the Duomo, which flanks the eastern side of the piazza. The original cathedral here was founded in the eleventh century, and built on the site of earlier Roman baths, but of this medieval church only the beautifully crafted apses survived the 1693 earthquake; you can see them through the gate at Via Vittorio Emanuele II 159. Vaccarini added an imposing Baroque facade, on which he tagged granite columns filched from Catania’s Roman amphitheatre, while the interior is adorned with a rich series of chapels. The Cappella di Sant’Agata is to the right of the choir, and houses the relics that are paraded through the city on the saint’s festival days. Next to it, entered through a fine sixteenth-century doorway, the Cappella della Madonna holds a Roman sarcophagus that contains the ashes of the Aragonese kings – Frederick II, Louis and Frederick III. The tomb of the composer Bellini, a native of the city, is set in the floor before the second column on the right as you enter, inscribed with a phrase from his opera, La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker).

THE FESTA DI SANT’AGATA

Catania’s biggest annual festival, the Festa di Sant’Agata, takes place each year between February 3 and 5. It’s a 500-year-old celebration of the life and death of the virtuous Agatha, born in the city around 230 AD and destined for dreadful tortures once she had spurned the unwelcome advances of the Roman praetor, Quintianus, in 252 AD: prison, whipping, mutilation and burning followed. The three days of the festival see hundreds of thousands processing through the streets following a silver, bejewelled reliquary that holds the relics of the saint. There’s also a procession of decorated candlesticks, up to 6m high, carried for hours at a time by groups representing different trades. On the morning of February 5, the saint’s relics are carried back into the Duomo, where they remain until the following year. Meanwhile, there are fireworks, food stalls, special services and concerts throughout the festa.

Museo Diocesano and the Terme Achilliane

Piazza Duomo • Mon–Fri 9am–2pm, Sat 9am–1pm • Museum €7, Terme Achilliane €5 • tel_icon 095 281 636, web_icon museodiocensanocatania.com

To the right of the Duomo, the Museo Diocesano houses the cathedral’s collection of religious art and silverware, with items dating back to the fourteenth century, including pieces recovered from the pre-1693 cathedral. Beautifully presented as the museum is, most people will find more appeal in the remains of the Terme Achilliane, Catania’s Imperial Roman baths, which form part of the museum. They’re perhaps not quite as alluring as they were in the days of eighteenth century French traveller Jean Houel, who, discovering a hall covered with stuccoes of Cupids, vines, grapes and animals, concluded that it must have been a Temple to Bacchus. Delightful as the idea of a temple devoted to the most decadent of Greek gods might be, it’s pretty obvious that the building was a baths complex, as testified by a huge marble pool in what is thought to have been the Frigidarium. Originally stretching right across the piazza as far as the Pescheria (where remains of the Caldarium were discovered), water was provided by the River Amenano, which still flows below the city.

The Pescheria

Piazza Pardo and Piazza Alonzo de Benedetto • Mon–Sat, usually 7am–2pm

Catania’s best-known food and fish market, the Pescheria, is reached from the back of Piazza del Duomo by nipping down the steps behind a gushing marble fountain. This takes you right into the main part of the fish market, where vendors shout across slabs and buckets full of twitching fish, eels, crabs and shellfish. Brandishing wicked-looking knives, they slice off swordfish steaks to order, while others shuck oysters, mussels and sea urchins for browsing customers. The side alleys off the fish market are dense with fruit, vegetable and dried goods and herb stalls, as well as cheese counters and bloody butchers’ tables.

Via Vittorio Emanuele II

On the other side of the Duomo, across busy Via Vittorio Emanuele II, the church of Sant’Agata is another of Vaccarini’s works, though the lighter, pale grey Rococo interior post-dates his death. A little further up the street, at no. 140, there’s the minor curiosity that was the home of Catanese erotic poet and philosopher Domenico Tempio (1750–1821). It’s now desperately neglected, though you can still make out the raunchy figures of men and women playing with themselves, which support the balcony above the blackened doorway.

Teatro Romano

Via Vittorio Emanuele II 260 • Daily 9am–6.30pm • Free

The Teatro Romano, built in the second century AD, is an intimate little theatre, which preserves much of the Roman seating and underground passageway. A small antiquarium here displays finds from the site. The smaller Odeon, adjacent, was used for music and recitations.

Castello Ursino and the Museo Civico

Museo Civico Mon–Fri 9am–1pm & 2.30–7pm, Sat 9am–8pm • €6 • tel_icon 095 345 830

Beyond the Pescheria, Via Plebiscito winds through a dilapidated though appealingly neighbourly quarter to Piazza Federico di Svevia, dominated by the Castello Ursino, once the proud fortress of Frederick II. Originally the castle stood on a rocky cliff above the sea, but a 1669 eruption of Etna resulted in this entire area becoming landlocked, and left just the keep standing. The castle still presents a formidable appearance, and now houses the Museo Civico, part of whose ground floor is taken up with temporary exhibitions, while permanent exhibits include retrieved mosaic fragments, stone inscriptions, elegant painted Greek amphorae and terracotta statuettes. Upstairs the Pinacoteca (art gallery) holds mainly religious art from the seventeenth century.

Via Crociferi

The best place to appreciate the eighteenth-century rebuilding of Catania is along its most handsome street, Via Crociferi, where the wealthy religious authorities and private citizens competed with each other to construct dazzling houses, palaces and churches. They were building using the very bones of the Roman and medieval city: the arcaded Piazza Mazzini (straddling Via Garibaldi) was constructed from 32 columns that originally formed part of a Roman basilica.

Via Crociferi begins to the north of Piazza San Francesco, running under an imposing Baroque arch that announces the start of a series of arresting religious and secular buildings, little-changed since the eighteenth century. Amble up the narrow street and you can peer into the courtyards of the palazzi (one holds a plantation of banana trees) and poke around the churches. About halfway up on the right, the finest of these, San Giuliano (usually only open for services), has a facade by Vaccarini and an echoing elliptical interior.

Museo Belliniano

Piazza San Francesco d’Assisi 3 • Mon–Sat 9am–1pm • Free • tel_icon 095 715 0535

At the bottom of Via Crociferi, opposite San Francesco church, the house where the composer Vincenzo Bellini was born in 1801 is now open as the Museo Belliniano, displaying photographs, original scores, his death mask and other memorabilia. Born into a musical family, Bellini supposedly composed his first work at the age of 6, and later studied in Naples, where he produced his first opera in 1825. Ten more operas followed during the next decade – his first big success was Il Pirata (1827) – with Bellini living largely in Milan until his early death in Paris, aged only 33. His body was transported back to his native Sicily to be buried, and Catania subsequently did her favourite son proud, with the airport, a piazza, the city’s main theatre and a park all named after him, as well as the ultimate accolade – a pasta dish, spaghetti alla Norma, cooked with tomato and aubergine and named after Bellini’s famous 1831 opera.

San Nicolò

Piazza Dante • Mon–Sat 9am–1pm

Opposite the peculiar crescent-shaped Piazza Dante looms the unfinished facade of San Nicolò, studded by six enormous, lopped columns. It was conceived on a ridiculously grand scale, and the work was ultimately curtailed by earthquake damage and soaring costs. What’s left is a stark 105m-long interior, virtually undecorated save for the sculpted choir stalls and a meridian line etched in marble across the floor of the transept, embellished with zodiacal signs. The famous organ, admired by earlier visitors, was destroyed in the nineteenth century.

The church is part of an adjoining Benedictine convent, with equally impressive dimensions – it’s the second-largest convent in Europe after Mafra in Portugal. Through a gate to the left of the church lie the remains of some Roman walls, and, behind, the massive conventual buildings. These are now used by the university’s language and literature faculties, but you should be able to stroll in for a look around the once grand cloistered courtyards.

Via Etnea and around

The main city thoroughfare, Via Etnea, runs north from Piazza del Duomo and out of the city. Following its full length would eventually lead you right to the foothills of Mount Etna – and from the street’s northern end there are photogenic views of the peak in the distance.

The first square off the street, Piazza dell’Università, holds some outdoor cafés and the main building of the University, founded by the Aragonese kings in the fifteenth century. The earthquake postponed its completion until the 1750s. The tangled streets off to the east form the heart of the student nightlife zone, converging eventually on the restored Piazza Bellini, overlooked by the flagship Teatro Massimo Bellini, built in 1890.

Anfiteatro Romano

Piazza Stesicoro • Tues–Sun 9am–1pm & 3–7pm • Free

Halfway up Via Etnea, Piazza Stesicoro marks the modern centre of Catania, with its western side almost entirely occupied by the sunken black remains of the Anfiteatro Romano, built from lava blocks in the second or third century AD. Much is still concealed under the surrounding buildings, but a diagram shows the original dimensions of the theatre, which could hold sixteen thousand spectators – it’s quite evident that the section you can walk through represents only one tiny excavated corner.

Sant’Agata al Carcere

Piazza Santo Carcere • No set hours

Behind the Anfiteatro Romano is the twelfth-century church of Sant’Agata al Carcere, built on the site of the prison where St Agatha was confined before her martyrdom at the hands of the Romans. When it’s open (hours are sporadic), a custodian will let you into the third-century crypt and show you the chapel’s medieval stone doorway, topped by evil, grinning, sculpted heads and ape-like creatures.

Fera o Luni market

Piazza Carlo Alberto • Mon–Sat usually 7am–2pm

Off the east side of Via Etnea, at Piazza Stesicoro, the stalls are out from early in the morning ranged up Via San Gaetano alla Grotta, heralding the city’s rambunctious Fera o Luni market, which is centred on the broad Piazza Carlo Alberto. As well as fruit, veg and fish, all kinds of clothes (new and secondhand), shoes, accessories and household goods are sold here, from tat piled high on a wooden cart to cut-price designer labels (or copies thereof), all accompanied by the constant patter and haggling of cheery traders. The market is a great spot for souvenir-hunting, even more so on Sundays when an antiques fair takes over the space.

Villa Bellini

For tourists Via Etnea finishes at the Villa Bellini, just beyond the post office, a large, ornamental public garden that provides a welcome touch of greenery. The stand-up drinks bar here is where the local police hang out, whiling away time between meal breaks; rather touching photos of the regulars are pinned up, posing stiffly in uniform on horseback or motorbikes.

Zo: the centre for contemporary culture

Piazzale Asia 6 • Museo del Cinema Tues–Sun 9am–12.30pm, plus Tues & Thurs 3–4.30pm • €4 • Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 Tues–Sat 9am–12.30pm, plus Tues & Thurs 3–5pm • €4 • tel_icon 095 816 8912, web_icon zoculture.it

In the east of the city, up Viale Africa near Stazione Centrale, Catania’s former sulphur works, Le Ciminiere, has been transformed into a cultural centre known as Zo. The original red-brick chimneys and lava-block walls have been wrapped in a contemporary glass-and-steel frame, while inside are theatre and performance spaces and a café-restaurant. It’s an interesting place to visit even if you don’t come for an exhibition or event, and it holds two museums as well, both self-explanatory: the Museo del Cinema, and the Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943, or the Museum of the Allied Invasion of Sicily. The latter is a winner with kids, who get to walk through a replica of a typical Sicilian village piazza, take cover in an air-raid shelter as the siren sounds, and emerge at all-clear into a bombed version of the same piazza.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CATANIA

BY PLANE

From Fontanarossa airport, 5km south of the city, the cheapest way into the centre is the Alibus #457 (every 20min, daily 5.30am–midnight) from right outside, which runs to the central Piazza Stesicoro (on Via Etnea) and to Stazione Centrale in around 20min (longer in heavy traffic); buy tickets (€1) from the machine or the bookshop, both in the Arrivals hall. Most regional express buses (to Siracusa, Taormina, Ragusa, Agrigento, Enna, Messina and Palermo) also stop at the airport, and from April to October you can get a direct bus from the airport to Milazzo (for the Aeolian Islands). A taxi ride to the centre costs around €20.

BY TRAIN

Stazione Centrale Trains pull in at Stazione Centrale in Piazza Giovanni XXIII, just east of the centre. It’s easy to jump on a city bus outside to reach Piazza del Duomo or Via Etnea, or to take a taxi (around €10). Otherwise, it’s a 20min walk to the Duomo. For information and timetables call tel_icon 892 021, or visit web_icon ferroviedellostato.it. For Circumetnea services, note that there is a reduced service in July and Aug, and no trains on Sundays and holidays in winter.

Mainline destinations Acireale (1–2 hourly; 10min); Caltagirone (6 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 45min); Caltanissetta (3–4 daily; 2hr); Enna (4 daily Mon–Sat, 3 daily Sun; 1hr 20min); Gela (5 daily Mon–Sat; 2hr 10min–2hr 45min); Giarre-Riposto (1–2 hourly; 30min); Lentini (11 daily Mon–Sat, 5 daily Sun; 30min); Messina (1–2 hourly; 1hr 30min); Palermo via Caltanissetta or Messina (4 daily; 3hr–6hr 40min); Siracusa (11 daily Mon–Sat, 5 daily Sun; 1hr 30min); Taormina (1–2 hourly; 45min).

Stazione Catania Borgo The other city station, the Stazione Catania Borgo on Via Caronda, off the northern end of Via Etnea, is for trains on the Ferrovia Circumetnea, the round-Etna line ( tel_icon 095 541 250, web_icon circumetnea.it); it’s connected by metro with Stazione Centrale. A taxi to the centre is around €12.

Circumetnea destinations Adrano (14 daily; 1hr); Bronte (11 daily; 1hr 30min); Maletto (11 daily; 1hr 45min); Paternò (16 daily; 30min); Randazzo (11 daily; 2hr); Riposto (4 daily; 3hr 10min).

BY BUS

Essentials Virtually all long-distance buses stop at the airport as well as at the bus station – a far easier place to change buses if you are not intending to spend time in the city. The bus station is a grotty 5min walk from the train station, up Viale della Liberta, on Via Archimede, and the ticket offices are currently inconveniently located on the other side of Viale della Liberta, so buy them before going in to the station.

Bus companies The major companies have terminals around Stazione Centrale, including: AST, Via L. Sturzo 230 ( tel_icon 840 000 323 or 095 723 0535, web_icon aziendasicilianatrasporti.it), for services within Catania province, including Etna; Interbus/Etna, Via d’Amico 187 ( 095 530 396, interbus.it), for Acireale, Caltagirone, Enna, Giardini-Naxos, Messina, Nicosia, Noto, Piazza Armerina, Ragusa, Siracusa and Taormina; SAIS Autolinee, Via d’Amico 181 ( tel_icon 095 536 168, web_icon saisautolinee.it), to Palermo, Messina, Enna and Caltanissetta; SAIS Trasporti, Via d’Amico 213 ( 095 536 201, saistrasporti.it), to Messina, Agrigento, Caltanissetta and mainland destinations.

Destinations from Catania Acireale (1–3 hourly; 35min–1hr 15min); Agrigento (approx hourly; 2hr 50min); Caltagirone (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 1hr 30min); Enna (12 daily; 1hr 30min–2hr 25min); Gela (8–10 daily Mon–Sat, 6 daily Sun; 1hr 45min); Giardini-Naxos (5 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 30min); Lentini (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 15min); Messina (1–2 hourly; 1hr 35min); Nicolosi (hourly; 40min); Nicosia (4–5 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 2hr–2hr 45min); Noto (7 daily; 2hr 25min–2hr 15min); Palermo (hourly; 2hr 40min); Piazza Armerina (3–6 daily; 1hr 50min); Ragusa (12 daily; 2hr); Randazzo (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat; 1hr 45min); Rifugio Sapienza (1 daily; 2hr); Rome (2–3 daily; 11hr); Siracusa (approx hourly; 1hr 20min); Taormina (16 daily; 1hr 40min).

Destinations from Catania airport Agrigento (hourly Mon–Sat, 10 daily Sun; 2hr 40min); Enna (9 daily Mon–Fri, 6 daily Sat, 3 daily Sun; 1hr 15min); Messina (13 daily Mon–Fri, 8 daily Sat & Sun; 1hr 50min); Milazzo (1–2 daily April–June & Oct; 4 daily July–Sept; 1hr 50min); Palermo (hourly Mon–Sat, 9 daily Sun; 2hr 30min); Siracusa (8 daily Mon–Fri, 6 daily Sat & Sun; 1hr 15min); Taormina (hourly Mon–Sat, 11 daily Sun; 1hr 25min).

BY FAST FERRY AND HYDROFOIL

Essentials There is a hydrofoil and fast-ferry service at least four times a week between Catania and Malta in summer ( tel_icon 095 703 1211, web_icon virtuferries.com). TTT Lines ( 800 915 365 or 081 580 2744, tttlines.it) run a daily ferry to Naples, taking 12 hours; most travel agents have timetables and can sell tickets. The port is a 5min walk along Via VI Aprile, southwest of the train station, and is also served by a stop on the Metropolitana (Stazione Porto).

Destinations Naples (1 daily; 12hr); Valletta, Malta (1–5 weekly; 3hr).

GETTING AROUND

By bus AMT city buses ( tel_icon 800 018 696 or 095 751 9111, web_icon amt.ct.it) have terminals at Stazione Centrale and Piazza Borsellino, where there’s a stop for the airport. Central pick-up points are Piazza del Duomo and Piazza Stesicorot. Tickets (€1) are valid for any number of journeys within 90min and are available from tabacchi, the newsagents inside Stazione Centrale or the booth outside the station. The same outlets also sell a biglietto giornaliero (€2.50), valid for one day’s unlimited travel on all local AMT bus routes.

By metro The city has a metro system, operated by the same folk who run the Circumetnea line, which operates every 15min (7am–8.30pm) on a limited route running from the main Stazione Centrale (beyond Platform 11) south to Catania Porto and north and northwest to Catania Borgo, the terminal for the Stazione Circumetnea on Via Caronda. Bus tickets are valid on metros and must be punched at machines before boarding the train.

By car Driving into Catania isn’t too difficult (just follow signs for “centro” for Via Etnea), but driving around the city is a different matter thanks to chaotic traffic, the fiendish one-way system and the utter impossibility of parking. Some hotels have their own parking or arrangements with nearby garages, but as you really don’t need a car in Catania, the best advice if you’re renting a car is to do so on the day you leave the city, and to consider picking it up from the airport, connected by frequent local buses with the centre.

Car rental All the big-name agencies – Avis ( tel_icon 095 340 500, web_icon avis.com); Europcar ( 095 348 125, europcar.it); Hertz ( 095 341 595, hertz.it); Maggiore ( 095 340 594, maggiore.it); Sixt ( 095 340 389, sixt.it) – have outlets at the airport (opposite the bus stops outside arrivals) and in the city. However, you may find prices from local operator Hollywood ( tel_icon 095 281 161) beat even the car rental broker websites.

By taxi There are taxi ranks at Stazione Centrale, Piazza del Duomo and Via Etnea (Piazza Stesicoro); call tel_icon 095 330 966 or 095 338 282 for 24-hour service.

INFORMATION

Tourist office The most convenient tourist offices are located up by the side of the Villa Bellini gardens at Via Beato Bernardo 5 (Mon–Fri 9am–1pm, plus Wed 3–7pm; tel_icon 095 747 7415), and close to the Duomo at Via Vittorio Emanuele II 172 (Mon–Sat 8.15am–1.15pm; 800 841 042 or 095 742 5573, web_icon www.comune.catania.it/turismo).

Listings information For what’s on check out the Catania editions of daily newspapers Giornale di Sicilia, La Sicilia and the Gazzetta del Sud, and the comprehensive, free fortnightly arts and entertainment leaflet, Lapis ( web_icon lapisnet.it), available at the tourist offices and elsewhere.

CATANIA CITY TOURS AND ETNA EXCURSIONS

To see a lot of Catania in a short time and without too much walking, join one of the bus tours operated by Katane Live ( tel_icon 095 354 704, web_icon katanelive.it), which offers a hop-on hop-off service (daily 9am–7pm; €5, plus €2 for audioguide; tickets sold on board) around the centre, taking in Via Etnea, Piazza del Duomo and Villa Bellini, with additional stops at the train station, Piazza Stesicoro and Piazza Verga, among other places. Alternatively, there’s the Trenino Turistico ( tel_icon 095 820 4281), a mini-train on wheels, of special appeal to children, which leaves from Piazza Duomo and performs a wide 35min circuit of the centre including Via Vittorio Emanuele II, Via Etnea and Via Crociferi (€5, €3.50 for children over 7).

Of the numerous tours to Etna, Geo Etna Explorer ( tel_icon 349 610 9957, web_icon geoetnaexplorer.it) and Etna Experience ( 349 305 3021, etnaexperience.com) offer a range of half- and full-day tours from around €55, with pick-up points in the city centre (some operators will pick you up from your hotel). Ask the tourist office for the full list of Etna excursions.

ACCOMMODATION

Catania’s hotels have raised their game in recent years, with grubby old pensioni replaced by renovated three- and four-star hotels and a few stylish boutique places. It’s always wise to reserve in advance, especially in July and August and during the Sant’Agata celebrations, with prices usually determined by availability. There’s also a burgeoning number of city-centre B&Bs – you’ll see several signposted just by walking up Via Etnea – and a couple of excellent central youth hostels. Catania is the first city in Sicily to introduce a tourist tax of €1–1.50 per day (for the first three days), depending on the kind of hotel or B&B you stay in.

HOTELS AND B&BS

B&B 5 Balconi Via del Plebiscito 133 tel_icon 338 727 2701, web_icon 5balconi.it. This clean, relaxed B&B has artistically decorated rooms with vintage furnishings and plenty of personality; and as the name implies, it has five balconies. The young Anglo-Sicilian couple who run it are full of local tips. Bathrooms are shared, and there’s a/c and free wi-fi. It’s on a busy road, but noise intrusion is minimal. Breakfast includes traditional Catanese pastries. No credit cards. €55

B&B BaD Via C. Colombo 24 tel_icon 095 346 903, web_icon badcatania.com. Four vibrant rooms and an apartment with cooking facilities and a terrace with a view of Etna, all set in a funky, self-styled B&B with 1960s and 1970s furniture and walls covered with psychedelic geometries and optical illusions. It’s conveniently located behind the Pescheria and Piazza del Duomo. Rooms €80; apartment €100

B&B Bianca Via S. Tomaselli 43 tel_icon 095 989 0989, web_icon biancabb.com. B&B behind the Giardino Bellini, where the young, friendly owners make sure guests are well informed about what’s going on in Catania. There are two rooms, at present with shared bathroom. The communal area is a cheerful place to hang out and chat, with white walls and fittings, scarlet chairs, and a tangerine sofa where you can flop and watch a DVD. €70

author_pick B&B Casa Barbero Via Caronda 209 tel_icon 095 820 6301, web_icon casabarbero.it. Contemporary colours and design in a beautifully restored Liberty-era palazzo with six quiet rooms set around a courtyard. Breakfast is served either in the courtyard, or in the elaborately stuccoed and frescoed dining room, at tables elegantly laid with Japanese-style ceramics and modern pewter. Bikes for guests’ use (free but €100 deposit). €90

Etnea 316 Via Etnea 316 tel_icon 095 250 3076, web_icon hoteletnea316.it. Real care has gone into the maintenance of this charming old B&B, where ten spruced-up rooms retain their original tile floors and lofty proportions. There’s a pretty lounge and breakfast room, and a calm air envelops all. €65

Holland International Via Vittorio Emanuele 8 tel_icon 095 533 605, web_icon hollandintrooms.it. Old-fashioned pensione, convenient for the station and charging competitive prices for rooms on the first floor of an old palazzo with vaulted frescoed ceilings. Rooms come with and without bathroom and all have a/c, satellite TV and tea- and coffee-making facilities. There is free wi-fi, and the friendly Dutch owner speaks good English. €60

Hotel Gresi Via Pacini 28 tel_icon 095 322 709, web_icon gresihotel.com. Newly refurbished traditional hotel, with a pleasantly old-fashioned atmosphere, where the spacious rooms with frescoed ceilings offer exactly what you’d expect of a three-star hotel – charmless veneer furniture, plain furnishings, phones, fridges and a/c. Good location between Via Etnea and the bustling Piazza Carlo Alberto market. €70

Liberty Hotel Via San Vito 40 tel_icon 095 311 651, web_icon libertyhotel.it. Intimate and romantic hotel in an early twentieth-century palazzo, a 10min walk from Via Etnea. Wonderfully refurbished in carefully researched Liberty style, the hotel has a calm atmosphere and a trellis-shaded courtyard, and is an ideal place to recuperate after a long journey. There are good-value discounts and packages including trips to Etna via the website. There’s no restaurant, but a local pizzeria will deliver to the hotel. €180

Una Hotel Via Etnea 218 tel_icon 095 250 5111, web_icon unahotels.it. Chic designer hotel belonging to a national chain, whose decor reflects the dominant black-and-white of the city’s Baroque (and of snowcapped Etna): floors of Etna lava and Comiso limestone; beds laid with cream cotton and black velvet; and Baroque-style chairs sprayed gold and upholstered in black velvet. Facilities include roof terrace and restaurant-bar with spectacular views of Etna, and a gym with steam bath. Check the website for offers, especially weekend packages. €160

La Vetreria Via Grimaldi 8 tel_icon 095 281 537, web_icon residencelavetreria.com. Occupying a 1920s mirror factory, this popular complex of serviced rooms and apartments (sleeping 1–5 people) has tasteful furniture, spacious rooms, and cooking facilities. The breakfast room with toy cupboard and little table and chairs signals straight away that this is a place where kids are genuinely welcomed. There’s an official minimum stay of two weeks, but this is flexible. From €300 per week

HOSTELS

author_pick Agorà Piazza Currò 6 tel_icon 095 723 3010, web_icon agorahostel.com. Fantastic but nonetheless secluded location near the Pescheria fish market (follow the signs), though its restaurant, bar and night-time events mean that it can get noisy.The basic dorms (six to ten beds) have bunks and lockers, with separate bathrooms for men and women, and there are some small private double rooms. Free internet access, use of kitchen, washing facilities and bike rental are also offered, and there’s 24hr access. Dorms from €16; rooms €55

C.C.Ly Piazza Falcone tel_icon 095 746 2399, web_icon ccly-hostel.com. On the top floor of a nineteenth-century palazzo, this hostel – pronounced “Sicily” – created by two couchsurfing veterans, is fantastically kitsch, the swirling decor harking back to the 1960s – but it’s very friendly and has low prices and a central location close to the bus station. The eight beds in each single-sex dorm share a bathroom, and there are also en-suite doubles. Guests have lockers, internet access, use of a kitchen, laundry facilities and parking. Dorms from €15; doubles €40

EATING, DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE

Catania’s streets teem until late, especially in summer. Restaurants are pretty good value, thanks to the presence of so many students, who also go a long way to ensuring the island’s best nightlife. The whole ambience is helped by the fact that the Comune closes old-town streets and squares to traffic (the so-called café concerto) and bars spill tables outside until the small hours. Of the outdoor cafés, those in Piazza del Duomo and Piazza dell’Università have the best views in the most touristy locale, while the cooler bars are found around Piazza Bellini (particularly down Via Teatro Massimo, in Via Rapisardi and in adjacent piazzas Ogninella and Scammacca). The sole exception is the funky, most un-Sicilian café, bar and restaurant at the Agorà youth hostel, near the Pescheria market. In summer, there are open-air venues for dancing until the early hours along the coast on the outskirts of town – ask around and look for posters and flyers for the latest spots.

CATANIA’S STREET FOOD

The Catanese do a lot of eating on the hoof, from grazing on raw mussels and sea urchins in the Pescheria to eating ice cream as they parade up Via Etnea in the evening. February’s Festa di Sant’Agata sees food stalls selling traditional nougat (torrone) and confections of marzipan and sweet ricotta (including little cakes with a cherry on top, known as Minne di Sant’Agata, or Saint Agatha’s boobs), while during summer kiosks offer that thirst-quenching Catania speciality, soda water and crushed lemon, served with or without salt (seltz e limone con/senza sale). In autumn the roast-chestnut vendors are out in force, and around San Martino’s Day (November 11) it’s the time for crispelle – fritters of flour, water, yeast and ricotta or anchovies. A great place to try these and other traditional fried snacks is Friggitoria Stella, Via Monsignor Ventimiglia 66 (Mon–Sat 7pm–late; closed in summer; tel_icon 095 535 002), a backstreet establishment off Via Giovanni di Prima that’s been going for years.

RESTAURANTS

author_pick Da Aldo Piazza G. Sciuti 2 tel_icon 095 311 158. The best choice near the Fera o Luni market, this is an amiable first-floor lunchtime grill-house where bustling waiters reel off the daily specials (pasta alla Norma, stuffed squid or a simple grilled sea bass or steak). It’s great value, less than €20 for a full meal. From Piazza Carlo Alberto, take the first left off Via Pacini, down Via al Carmine. No credit cards. Mon–Sat lunch only.

Antica Marina Via Pardo 29 tel_icon 095 348 197. Trattoria bang in the heart of the fish market where you can eat reasonably priced fresh fish on tables laid with paper cloths. Go for one of the set menus – a mixed antipasto plus two kinds of pasta, or antipasto plus mixed fried fish – at €25 including a lemon sorbet and coffee. Mon–Sat lunch & dinner.

Camelot Piazza Federico di Svevia 75 tel_icon 095 723 2103. Lively place where you can feast for a song on Sicilian antipasti (€5) or barbecued sausages and meat (from €3 per sausage), and drink local wine from plastic cups. Dinner only Tues–Sun.

De Fiore Via Coppola 24 tel_icon 095 316 283. Cosy, family-run trattoria, serving good, traditional Sicilian food at moderate prices. The spaghetti alla Norma with hand-made pasta (€6) is wonderful. Daily lunch & dinner; closed Mon in winter.

Oxidiana Via Conte Ruggero 4a tel_icon 095 532 585, web_icon oxidiana.it. Scores of different sushi and California rolls, along with tataki, tempuras, stir-fries and a marvellous sesame-crusted tuna (best in May and June, the height of the tuna season). There are vegetarian options and lots of gluten-free dishes, plus fab cocktails and over sixty different rums for the trying. A great place, and they deliver too (daily 6.30–8.30pm only). Daily, dinner only.

author_pick La Paglia Via Pardo 23 tel_icon 095 346 838. Simple trattoria (wipe-clean tablecloths, panel-board walls) that’s the best place in town for a reasonably priced fish-market lunch – when the signora runs out of something at lunchtime she just bellows through the kitchen window at the stallholders for more. Antipasti cost €5–10, pasta dishes such as spaghetti and clams are €7–10, and mains – grilled tuna, perhaps – €10–15. The house wine is the kind that you can run your car on. Mon–Sat lunch & dinner.

Sicilia in Bocca Via Dusmet 35 tel_icon 095 250 0208. One of the nicest places in town to sit outside, this is pizzeria one side, restaurant the other (though in practice you can mix and match menus), sharing a shaded terrace. It’s set in the old arched sea wall (through Porta Uzeda from Piazza del Duomo and turn left), and service is friendly and English-speaking. Pizzas are €6–10, pasta dishes €8–12, mains €12–20. Mon dinner, Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

author_pick La Siciliana Viale Marco Polo 52a tel_icon 095 376 400. Renowned as one of eastern Sicily’s best restaurants, with a thoroughly traditional menu, strong on fish and local specialities like rice with squid ink and fresh ricotta; they also make their own sensational pastries and desserts. In summer there’s outdoor garden-terrace seating. It’s expensive, however: count on spending €45 for a full meal without wine. You’ll need to take bus #628 rosso from the station or a taxi as it’s way up in the north of the city. Tues–Sat lunch & dinner, Sun lunch only.

CAFÉS AND BARS

Agora Piazza Currò 6 tel_icon 095 723 3010, web_icon agorahostel.com. Lively pub that attracts a mix of locals and travellers from the youth hostel. Non-guests come here for the restaurant, to catch a DJ or gig (check the website for upcoming events), sit out at the laidback outdoor terrace or drink in the unique cellar wine bar (housed in a natural lava-cave with one of Catania’s underground streams running through it). They make nice bruschetta too to soak up the booze. Daily noon–late.

La Cartiera Via Casa del Mutilato 8 tel_icon 347 637 2592, web_icon brassjazzclub.it. Long-established jazz club just off Piazza Bellini, with good food (pasta for around €9) as well as live music. Check out the website for concerts. Mon & Wed–Sun 8.30pm–late.

La Collegiata Via Collegiata 3 tel_icon 095 321 230. A laidback, studenty place with a pleasant terrace for an evening drink or daytime snack. Daily 11.30am–4.30pm & 5.30/6pm–late.

author_pick Nievski Via Alessi 15–17 tel_icon 095 313792. They love Che in this “pub-trattoria alternativo”, where you can come for a plate of organic food, a Fair Trade coffee or a beer. There’s internet access, all kinds of concerts and events, and more goatees than you can shake a stick at. It’s on the Alessi steps up to Via Crociferi. Tues–Sat noon–late, and Sun eve.

Savia Via Etnea 302 tel_icon 095 322 335. Opposite the main entrance to the Villa Bellini, this is the city’s most notable pasticceria, open since 1897 and always busy with folk digging into savoury arancini, ricotta-stuffed cannoli, real cassata and the like. Tues–Sun 7am–8pm.

ENTERTAINMENT

While the Bellini theatre is the traditional centre of opera, music and ballet, Catania’s new focus for culture and the arts is the Zo centre. Summer is the best time for concerts and events, from open-air jazz in the Villa Bellini gardens to classical concerts in churches and theatres across the city. To find out what’s on, check the listings information in several local publications.

CULTURE AND THE ARTS

Teatro Massimo Bellini Via Perrotta 12 tel_icon 095 730 6111 or 095 715 0921, web_icon teatromassimobellini.it. Facing Piazza Bellini, Catania’s impressive opera house has a concert season that runs from Oct until May, which includes classical music and ballet as well as opera.

Zo Viale Africa tel_icon 095 533 871, web_icon zoculture.it. Catania’s centre for contemporary arts is the place for cutting-edge theatre, electronic and world music, experimental art shows, off-the-wall installations and offbeat festivals. It’s a 2min walk from Stazione Centrale.

SHOPPING IN CATANIA

Via Etnea is the central spine of the city and its major shopping street, with department and chain stores, designer labels, boutiques and brands. Off here, just before the Villa Bellini, Via Pacini is devoted to cheap clothes, shoes, underwear and accessories, along with purveyors of spices and other exotic goodies (ranging from Heinz baked beans and Marmite to fresh lemongrass and kecap manis sauce).

At the far end it melds into the unmissable Fera o Luni market (Piazza Carlo Alberto). The nearest big supermarket is Punto SMA, Corso Sicilia 50 (Mon–Sat 8.30am–8.30pm, Sun 8.30am–1.30pm; tel_icon 095 326 099). The other daily market, the Pescheria, mainly trades in food (not just fish; it’s also great for buying things like salted capers, sun-dried tomatoes, hunks of pecorino cheese or bags of wild oregano), though on the fringes you’ll find clothes and jewellery too – Via Vittorio Emanuele II has a few “ethnic” shops with carvings, beads and fabrics. Across Piazza del Duomo, in the arches under the Porta Uzeda gateway, there are two or three well-stocked Sicilian souvenir stores, for puppets, postcards, ceramics, painted carts and almond wine. And around the back of the Duomo, in the old Palazzo Biscari at Piazza San Placido 7, look for the historic main branch of the now-ubiquitous Nonna Vincenza (Mon–Sat 8am–9pm, Sun 8am–2pm; tel_icon 095 715 1844), the most traditional place in the city to buy artisan sweets in gorgeous packaging.

As for books, Feltrinelli, Via Etnea 285 (Mon–Sat 10.30am–1.30pm & 4.30–8.30pm; tel_icon 095 352 9001), has a good range of English books; there’s also a branch of Mondadori at Piazza Roma 18 (Mon–Sat 9am–8pm; 095 716 9610).

THE SCOGLI DEI CICLOPI

Aci Castello marks the beginning of the so-called Riviera dei Ciclopi, named after the jagged points of the Scogli dei Ciclopi that rise from the sea just beyond town. Homer wrote that the blinded Polyphemus slung these rocks (broken from Etna) at Ulysses as he and his men escaped from the Cyclops in their ships. The largest of the three main sharp-edged islets – also known as faraglioni – sticks some 60m into the sky.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CATANIA’S BEACH RESORTS

By bus AMT bus #534 runs from Catania’s Piazza Borsellino to Aci Castello and Aci Trezza. The beaches of the Golfo di Catania are reached by taking bus #427 from Stazione Centrale or summer bus #D from Piazza Borsellino.

By train Regualr trains (approximately hourly) from Catania’s Stazione Centrale make the 5min journey to Ognina.

< Back to Catania, Etna and around

Acireale

ACIREALE, 16km north of Catania, has a marvellous site, high above the rocky shore and the surrounding lemon groves. It’s a location best appreciated from the public gardens at the northern end of town, from where you can look right back along the Riviera dei Ciclopi. Known since Roman times as a spa centre (the thermal baths are still heavily used), Acireale is also another striking example of Sicilian Baroque town planning. This is the fourth successive town on the site, rebuilt directly over the old lava streams after the 1693 earthquake, and, as in Catania, it relies on grand buildings, a handsome central square and Duomo and some long thoroughfares for its effect.

ACIREALE DRESSES UP

Acireale is known throughout Italy for its celebrations during Carnevale (Feb/March), when it hosts one of Sicily’s best festivals, with extraordinarily elaborate flower-decked floats and fancy-dress parades clogging the streets for five noisy days. The town also has a long tradition of Sicilian puppet theatre, with regular shows performed in summer by its surviving theatre companies, like that of Turi Grasso at Via Nazionale 195 ( tel_icon 095 764 8035, web_icon operadeipupi.com), which also has a small museum at the theatre (Wed, Sat & Sun 9am–noon & 6–9pm in summer or 3–6pm in winter; free).

Santa Maria la Scala

The nicest place to while away a few hours in Acireale – especially over lunch – is the tiny hamlet of Santa Maria la Scala, 2km below town, huddled around a minuscule harbour full of painted fishing-boats, where three or four trattorias overlook the bay. To get here on foot, go down Via Romeo (to the side of the Municipio), across the busy main road and then down the steep rural path to the water.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ACIREALE

By bus Buses to Acireale from Catania (1–3 hourly) stop outside the public gardens or near the Duomo.

By train Trains run regularly (1–2 hourly) between Acireale and Catania. The train station is well to the south of town, near the thermal baths, and a long walk into the centre along Via Vittorio Emanuele II.

< Back to Catania, Etna and around

Lentini

Half an hour or so south of Catania by road, LENTINI has a long pedigree that puts it among the earliest of the Greek settlements in Sicily, and the first of all the inland colonies. Established in 729 BC as a daughter city of Naxos, Lentini (Leontinoi) flourished as a commercial centre for two hundred years, before falling foul of Hippocrates of Gela. Later, the city was absorbed by Syracuse, sharing its disasters but never its prosperity. It was Leontinoi’s struggle to assert its independence, by allying itself with Athens, that provided the pretext for the great Athenian expedition against Syracuse in 415 BC. Another attempt – this time an alliance with the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War – resulted in the Romans beheading two thousand of its citizens, a measure that horrified the whole island, as no doubt it was intended to do. By the time Cicero got round to describing the city, Lentini was “wretched and empty”, though it continued as a small-scale agricultural centre for some time, until the great earthquake of 1693 completely demolished it.

Carlentini

Noisy, sprawling, modern Lentini has little to recommend it, and the extensive remains of the ancient city are a few kilometres out of town and easier to reach from the upper town of Carlentini, which itself has a fairly pleasant central square with a few bars. Some of the finds from ancient Lentini are on display in the Museo Archeologico (Tues–Sun 9am–6pm; €4), at Piazza Studi, east of central Carlentini off Via Piave. However, the best artefacts have been appropriated by the museums at Catania and Siracusa.

Zona Archeologica

Daily 9am–1pm • Free • The site is a 20min walk south of Carlentini; most Lentini buses also stop in Piazza San Francesco on the outskirts of Carlentini, closer to the Zona Archeologica, as do local buses from Lentini’s train station, from where the site is a 5min walk

The Zona Archeologica is spread over the two hills of San Mauro and Metapiccola. The first of these is the more interesting, holding the ancient town’s acropolis and the substantial remains of a vast necropolis nearby. You’ll see the pincer-style south gate immediately, part of a well-conserved system of fortifications that surrounded the town. Together, the hills make a good couple of hours’ rambling, while a dirt road to the side of the main entrance climbs around the perimeter fence to allow views over the whole site and down to Lentini in the valley below.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: LENTINI

By train Most trains between Catania and Siracusa stop at Lentini.

By bus Buses from Catania run to Lentini approximately half-hourly.

EATING

Navarria Via Conte Alaimo 8 tel_icon 095 941 045. For a snack in Lentini, seek out this fabulous pasticceria (anyone can point the way), where pastries and granitas are to die for. Tues–Sun 7am–9.30pm.

< Back to Catania, Etna and around

Mount Etna

One of the world’s largest volcanoes, Mount Etna (3323m) dominates much of Sicily’s eastern landscape, its smoking summit an omnipresent feature for travellers in the area. The main crater is gradually becoming more explosive and more dangerous, with spectacular eruptions in 2001 and 2002 far eclipsing those of the preceding decade. Despite the risk, the volcano remains a remarkable draw, though the unpredictability of eruptions – they may be expected, but cannot be pinpointed to a precise time – means that it’s often impossible to get close to the main crater.

Etna was just one of the places that the Greeks thought to be the forge of Vulcan, a fitting description of the blustering and sparking from the main crater. The philosopher Empedocles studied the volcano closely, living in an observatory near the summit. This terrifying existence was dramatized by Matthew Arnold in his Empedocles on Etna:

Alone! –

On this charr’d, blacken’d melancholy waste,

Crown’d by the awful peak, Etna’s great mouth.

Certainly, it all proved too much for Empedocles, who in 433 BC jumped into the main crater in an attempt to prove that the gases emitted would support his body weight. They didn’t.

The higher reaches of Etna resemble a lunar landscape, the ground underfoot alternately black, grey or red depending on the age of the lava. The most recent stuff lies in great folds; below, the red roofs and green fields of the lower hills stretch away to the sea. You’ll not be in any danger, provided you stay within the limit that is currently deemed safe to reach. Note that ascending the volcano is only possible between about May and October; the rest of the time, it’s swathed in snow. For obvious reasons, access to the upper reaches of Etna, around the craters, is strictly controlled – current volcanic activity and weather conditions will dictate how far up you’ll be able to go.

However you go, at whatever time of year, take warm clothes, good shoes or boots and glasses to keep the flying grit out of your eyes. You can rent boots and jackets cheaply from the Etna Sud cable-car station. Food up the mountain is poor and overpriced, so you might want to bring a picnic.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT CATANIA; AUTUMN AT ETNA; ETNA CRATER

SNOW, ICE AND THE BISHOP

Even in winter, the snow on Etna’s southern side tends to lie only in patches, partly melted by the heat of the rocks. On the northern side, however, hollows in the ground are filled year-round with snow. From here, the ice used to be cut, covered with ash and then transported to the rest of the island, the mainland and even Malta, for refrigeration purposes – a peculiar export that constituted the main source of revenue for the Bishop of Catania, who owned the land until comparatively recently.

Approaches to Etna

A ring of villages circles the lower slopes of Etna, including the ski-centres of Linguaglossa (on the Circumetnea rail route) and Nicolosi, which hold the bulk of the accommodation, restaurants and tour facilities. The two main approaches to the summit are from north and south. Some of the best scenery is on the north side (signposted “Etna Nord”), and if you have your own transport, the circular road that leads up from Linguaglossa to Piano Provenzano, and then to the Rifugio Cutelli, is highly recommended – though the road beyond Piano Provenzana is strictly controlled in snowy weather, and even with a 4WD you may be strongly encouraged to leave your vehicle and take an organized jeep trip. From the south side (“Etna Sud”), beyond Nicolosi, the chief departure point is the mountain refuge-hotel of Rifugio Sapienza, connected by daily bus from Catania.

If you’re short on time, the easiest way to see the volcano and climb its slopes is by organized tour. 4WD minibuses and guided hikes operate out of Piano Provenzana and Rifugio Sapienza, though many tourists simply book an all-day tour via their hotel or B&B in places like Taormina, Giardini-Naxos, Catania and Siracusa. If you’re pushed for time or unable to ascend higher due to adverse conditions, you’ll have to make do with the glimpses of Etna’s peak and hinterland from the Circumetnea railway.

THE FERROVIA CIRCUMETNEA

Although there’s nothing to beat an ascent of Etna, you can experience something of the majesty of the volcano along the route of the Ferrovia Circumetnea ( tel_icon 095 541 250, web_icon circumetnea.it), or Circumetnea railway. This is a private line, 110km long, starting in Catania and circling the base of Etna as far as Riposto on the Ionian coast, 30km north of Catania. It’s a marvellous ride, running through fertile vegetation – citrus plantations, vines and nut trees – and past the strewn lava of recent eruptions, with endless views of the summit en route. If you don’t have time to do the whole circuit, some of the best views of Etna are between Adrano and Bronte, as the railway line climbs ever closer to the lava flows.

You can easily do the whole round-trip in a day from Catania, although the medieval town of Randazzo also makes an interesting overnight stop. The Circumetnea ends its run 20km southeast of Linguaglossa at Riposto, where you switch to the mainline station Giarre-Riposto for frequent trains south to Catania (or north to Giardini-Naxos).

Circumetnea trains depart from Stazione Catania Borgo, on Via Caronda in Catania. They take two hours to Randazzo, three to Linguaglossa and three and a half to Riposto (no Sunday service; timetables available on the website), and tickets cost €6.85 one-way, €11 return. Occasionally, sections of the line are under repair, in which case a replacement bus service operates.

Etna Nord

If you have a car, head to the town of LINGUAGLOSSA and drive through the town following the brown signs to Etna Nord. There are several picnic places with barbecues along the road, and buying some good local meat before you leave Linguaglossa is probably the only reason to stop in town.

The road up the mountain is at its most spectacular in winter, when the peak of Etna is covered in snow. As you drive along, look out for ungainly lumps of solidified lava colonized with lichen, protruding through the undergrowth. Beyond Rifugio Ragabo (1425m), follow the sign for Piano Provenzana, whose hotels and ski-lifts were devastated by the most recent major eruption of 2002. Today the scorched skeletons of trees still protrude from a vast river of solidified lava. Going back to the main road, continue until you come to a side road marked Rifugio Citelli (1750m). On a clear day the views stretch across the Nébrodi mountains, to Taormina, and across the Ionian Sea, to the Aspromonte mountains in Calabria. The Refugio isn’t always staffed, but when it is, basic food is available, as are treks up the volcano (snow shoes are provided during winter). The descent takes you through a black moonscape of lava and back along the foothills of Etna to Linguaglossa.

ETNA NORD BY ORGANIZED TOUR

If you don’t have your own vehicle, you’ll need to take a taxi from Linguaglossa to Piano, from where tours aboard 4WD minibuses operated by STAR (daily May–Oct, weather permitting; tel_icon 095 371 333 or 347 495 7091) shuttle up and down the upper slopes. At present there is just one option, costing €48.50: a two-hour excursion that brings you to Pizzi Deneri (at a height of 2800m), where there is a 10min pause; you then descend to 2400m for another stop, then down again to 2100m for a 30min walk to a minor crater. If the current regulations change (the situation on the slopes is constantly monitored), there may be other options that bring you closer to the main crater (3200m). The early morning and early evening tours are the best – Etna at dawn or sunset is a spectacular sight – but need booking. The minibuses don’t run to a fixed timetable; they simply take off when full, and the operation is a lower-key affair than on the southern side.

You can also join an organized hike to the summit from Linguaglossa or Piano Provenzana – contact Guide Etna Nord for details: Via Roma 93, Linguaglossa ( tel_icon 095 777 4502 or 348 012 5167, web_icon guidetnanord.com). Solo expeditions are not encouraged.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: ETNA NORD

Rifugio Ragabo Pineta Bosco Ragabo tel_icon 095 647 841, web_icon ragabo.it. Simple, cosy pine-wood rifugio-hotel, high up on Etna near Linguaglossa, which makes a perfect base for an active mountain holiday – winter or summer – with cosy doubles and family rooms and a pleasant restaurant serving hearty mountain fare that is open to all. Half board is available (€50 per person); otherwise rates include breakfast. Closed Nov. €70

Etna Sud

More built-up and touristy than the north slope, Etna Sud offers the easiest approach to the volcano via public transport, with buses connecting Catania with the Rifugio Sapienza, at the foot of the cable car to the summit and at the end of the negotiable road up the south side of Etna. The ride up Etna to the rifugio throws up some truly bizarre scenery: the green foothills give way to wooded slopes, then to bare, black-and-grey seas of volcanic debris, spotted with the hardy endemic plants – yellow-green spino santo and Etna violets – that are the only things to grow on the heights of the volcano. The most recent lava streams lie to the right of the road, where you’ll also see earlier spent craters, grass-covered on the lower reaches and no more than black pimples further up.

THE ASCENT OF ETNA FROM RIFUGIO SAPIENZA

From Rifugio Sapienza, there are two ways up the volcano. The Funivia dell’Etna cable car (daily: summer 9am–5.30pm, winter 9am–3.30pm; €17.00 one-way, €29.50 return; web_icon funiviaetna.com) reaches an altitude of 2500m at Monte Montagnola, from where SITAS minibuses leave for the crater (April–Oct daily 9am–5pm, weather permitting; tel_icon 095 914 141). The total journey (cable car plus minibus) takes around 2.5hr and costs €57.50. When the wind is up, or conditions are otherwise difficult, the entire journey is undertaken from Rifugio Sapienza by minibus.

Conditions permitting, it’s also possible to walk to Etna’s summit from Rifugio Sapienza, for which you need to contact Etna Touring ( tel_icon 095 791 8000 or 347 783 8799, web_icon etnatouring.com). Expeditions without an authorized guide are extremely unwise.

Torre del Filosofo

In the autumn of 2013, as this guide went to press, eruptions from a crater in the southeast destroyed the so-called Torre del Filosofo, a tower that was said to have been the observatory of Empedocles, though more likely to have been a memorial built by the Romans to celebrate the emperor Hadrian’s climb to the summit. At the time of writing, excursions to this area were suspended.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ETNA SUD

By bus One or two buses a day from Catania go to Rifugio Sapienza, the mountain refuge/hotel that marks the end of the negotiable road up the south side of Etna. The year-round service leaves from Piazza Giovanni XXIII, outside Catania’s Stazione Centrale, daily at 8.15am, with a stop at Nicolosi; an additional summer service (mid-June to mid-Sept) leaves daily at 11.20am, and necessitates a change at Nicolosi. Altogether, it’s a two-hour journey; tickets cost around €5. (You can, of course, catch the bus at Nicolosi, from where departures to the refuge are at 9.15am and – in summer – 12.30pm, an hour-long trip.) The return bus from Rifugio Sapienza leaves for Catania at 4.30pm.

ACCOMMODATION

Hotel Corsaro tel_icon 095 914 122, web_icon hotelcorsaro.it. Ski-lodge-type place popular with tour groups, advertising itself as Etna’s highest lodging. It has a restaurant and offers half-board deals (€70 per person). €120

author_pick Rifugio Sapienza tel_icon 095 915 321, web_icon rifugiosapienza.com. At 1400m below the summit, this is the cheapest place on this side of Etna to spend the night, so it’s always wise to ring ahead and book. Its modern rooms have clean lines and en-suite bathrooms, and there’s a restaurant (excursions can also be arranged from here). €110

Nicolosi

The tidy little resort of NICOLOSI (698m), which had a narrow escape in the 2002 eruption, is a popular winter ski-centre and the most useful base in the foothills on the south side of the volcano. With several hotels and some good places to eat, it also has good bus connections from Catania. It gets pretty busy around here, even in summer, with some good walking possibilities in the area. Best of these, certainly if you’re going no further, is the hike up to the Monti Rossi craters, around an hour each way. Formed in the eruption of 1669, they’re the most important of the secondary craters that litter the slopes of the volcano.

Five kilometres or so east of Nicolosi, Trecastagni is worth a look for its main church, the Chiesa Madre, a fine Renaissance building probably designed by Antonello Gagini, and the marvellous views over the coast from its elevated position. Frankly, though, you’re hardly likely to come here for just these; better, if you’re driving, to look upon Trecastagni as a coffee-stop.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: NICOLOSI

By bus Nicolosi is the last main bus stop before the steeper slopes begin; AST buses run hourly from Catania, taking 40min.

Tourist office There’s a helpful tourist office on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele (Mon–Fri 9am–1pm, plus Mon, Wed & Thurs 4–6pm; tel_icon 095 914 488), just off the main road that runs through town.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

Camping Etna Via Goethe tel_icon 095 914 309. Nice campsite in a shady pinewood with a pool (summer only), is on Via Goethe, signposted from town just past the hotels. Open all year. Tent pitch plus two people €22

Al Centro Storico Via Garibaldi 26 tel_icon 095 910 735 or 348 266 4310, web_icon alcentrostorico.it. A good, central B&B with antique-style touches, along with fridges, TV and wi-fi, just off Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. €60

Etna Garden Park Hotel Via della Quercia 7 tel_icon 095 791 4686 or 347 877 9969, web_icon etnagardenpark.com. Subdued rooms in a capacious chalet-type building with a garden full of colonnades and statues. The friendly owners will help you organize the whole gamut of Etna-based activities, from mountain-biking and horseriding to tours based around food or wine. €85

author_pick Nero di Cenere Via Garibaldi 64 tel_icon 095 791 8513. Wine bar and restaurant serving taster-plates of local cheeses and salami, along with pastas and various vegetarian dishes, which you can enjoy al fresco on the terrace. Closes late if custom demands. Mon & Wed–Sun 7–9pm.

Zafferana Etnea

The most appealing of the villages on Etna’s southeastern side, ZAFFERANA ETNEA is surrounded by vineyards and citrus groves, and is renowned for its honey, the smell of which lingers in the air. Parts of the outskirts were damaged by lava in 1992, when the village became the operational hub of the effort to halt the flow from the volcano. The centre, however, was untouched, and it retains an eighteenth-century air in its buildings and churches, making it a pleasant stop, perhaps for a coffee in the bar on the corner of the elegant central piazza. The previous eruption to threaten Zafferana occurred in 1792, halted on that occasion – according to local tradition – by the intervention of Our Lady of Divine Providence, whose name was again invoked by God-fearing locals during the last volcanic ructions.

Zafferana has acquired a reputation as a low-key hill-resort, and the population of around seven thousand practically doubles at weekends and holidays as the trippers arrive. Certainly, there’s some good walking to be done in the green hills behind the village, and if you fancy a longer stay there’s a choice of hotels, all north of the centre. A road from Zafferana Etnea winds directly up the mountain to Rifugio Sapienza, a drive of around 45 minutes, while a lower road leads 15km north past various old lava flows – of 1852, 1950 and, near Fornazzo, of 1979 – to Linguaglossa.

MOUNT ETNA’S ERUPTIONS

Of the scores of recorded eruptions of Etna since the 475 BC one described by Pindar, some have been disastrously spectacular: in 1169, 1329 and 1381 the lava reached the sea, while in 1669, the worst year, parts of Catania were wrecked and its castle was surrounded by molten rock.

During the twentieth century, the Circumetnea railway line was repeatedly ruptured by lava flows, the towns of the foothills were threatened, and roads and farms destroyed. The 1971 eruption destroyed the observatory supposed to give warning of such an event, while in 1979 nine tourists were killed by an explosion on the edge of the main crater. During the 1992 eruption, which engulfed the outskirts of Zafferana Etnea, the American navy joined Italian forces in an attempt to stem the lava flow by dropping reinforced concrete blocks (so-called “Beirut-busters”, used to defend military camps) from helicopters into the fissures.

In 2001, the military helicopters were out again in force, this time water-bombing the forest fires and blazing orchards. Regarded as the most complex in the last three hundred years, the 2001 eruption spewed forth from six vents on Etna’s northern and southeastern sides and sent vast, fiery fountains of lava to the skies. Drivers found the roads blocked and air passengers were forced to divert to other island airports, while Catania suffered a rain of black ash day and night. Luckily there were no fatalities; the cluster of buildings around Rifugio Sapienza narrowly escaped and the lava flow petered out 4km short of Nicolosi, though the upper cable-car station was destroyed and the hut that held the monitoring live-cam was incinerated (somehow the equipment was saved).

Triggered by an earthquake, the eruption of 2002 saw lava streams pouring down both north and south flanks, destroying restaurants, hotels and a cable car in the ski resort of Piano Provenzana, and threatening the villages of Nicolosi and Linguaglossa below. Emergency teams, however, succeeded in diverting the flow, and a major catastrophe was averted. Some local villagers, on the other hand, preferred to place their faith in parading statues of the Virgin Mary before the volcano, although the devout were far outnumbered by the flocks of sightseers who made excursions as close as they dared, until curtailed by the authorities.

More eruptions followed in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the latter accompanied by minor local earthquakes and continuing at a low intensity for some six months, making it the longest of the eruptions since 2000. A significant eruption of ash also occurred in 2010, producing an ash plume that rose to a height of 800m above the crater.

In late 2013, Etna began erupting again, with most of the activity centred around the southeast crater. Pulsating lava fountains reached 600m height, and explosions of giant magma bubbles ejected liquid lava for hundreds of meters, destroying the Torre del Filosofo and entering the Valle del Bove. As the volcano was still in activity when this guide went to press, we recommend that anyone intending to visit Etna first consults the regularly updated English-language website, web_icon volcanodiscovery.com for an update on current conditions.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: ZAFFERANA ETNEA

By bus Buses run hourly Mon–Sat (4 daily Sun) from Catania to Zafferana Etnea, taking 1hr 15min.

Tourist information There’s a tourist office at Piazza Luigi Sturzo 3 (summer Mon–Sat 9am–1pm & 4–8pm; winter Mon–Sat 9am–1pm & 3–7pm; tel_icon 095 708 2825, web_icon zafferana-etnea.it).

ACCOMMODATION

Primavera dell’Etna Via Cassone 86 tel_icon 095 708 2348, web_icon hotel-primavera.it. Large, well-equipped hotel, a bit shabby at the seams. It’s more popular with Italians than foreigners, with fabulous views of Etna and the sea from its terraces, and lovely grounds with a tennis court and solarium. Rooms can be a bit old-fashioned, but the location is great, staff friendly and there is a restaurant too serving local fare, with half-board, deals should you so wish. €100

Milo

Five kilometres or so north of Zafferana, Milo offers impressive views of the Valle del Bove above. Maps show a road from Milo that climbs northwest, up the volcano to the Rifugio Citelli and back towards Linguaglossa, but frequent landslides often make this route impossible. You should be able to get some of the way up though, for more striking views of the summit and the coastline below.

Etna Adventure

Parco Sbargaglio, Via Acque del Vescovo • Daily 10am–sunset; sometimes closed weekends mid-Sept to mid-June, call ahead to check • Courses start at €15 • tel_icon 329 918 8187, web_icon etnaadventure.it

If you’ve kids in tow, you may get no further than Etna Adventure, just outside Milo on the road to Linguaglossa. An excellent adventure park, it has challenging Tarzan-like obstacle courses for adults and children (from age 2 and up) slung among the trees. They also organize all manner of activities on and around Etna, including snow-shoe trekking, whitewater rafting, potholing and jeep tours.

Randazzo

Great rivers of volcanic rubble clutter the slopes on all sides of RANDAZZO, the closest town to the summit of Etna, just 15km away as the crow flies. Walls belonging to former orchards or vineyards are occasionally visible through the black debris. Despite its dangerous proximity, the town has never been engulfed, though an eruption in 1981 came perilously close. Randazzo has not escaped entirely unscathed, however: as one of the main forward positions of the German forces during their defence of Sicily in 1943, the town was heavily bombed, and most of the lava-built churches and palaces you’ll see here, originally dating from the wealthy thirteenth- to sixteenth-century era, are the result of meticulous restoration. The result is a handsome old centre, with enough to occupy a half-day’s exploration – and Randazzo is easily the best place to break your Circumetnea trip if you fancy a night in the sticks.

In medieval times, three churches took turns to act as Randazzo’s cathedral, a sop to the three parishes in town whose inhabitants were of Greek, Latin and Lombard origin. The largest, Santa Maria, on the main Via Umberto I, is the modern-day holder of the title, a severe Catalan-Gothic structure with a fine carved portal with vine decoration. Further up the road, facing a small square, the blackened tower that forms part of the old city walls is all that survives of Randazzo’s Castello Svevo, which did duty as a prison from around 1500 until 1973.

Museo Vagliasindi

Via Castello 1 • Tues–Sun 9am–6pm • €2.60

Museo Vagliasindi holds a good collection of objects from a nearby Greek necropolis, including wine jugs in the form of women’s heads, and a vessel in the shape of a spunky little rat. Downstairs you’ll find ranks of dangling Sicilian puppets, variously sporting armour, a velvet cloak or a deer-stalker cap – typically for eastern Sicily, they are taller than the puppets you may have seen in Palermo. The museum’s other rooms, including the bare, minuscule cells where inmates once rotted, display agricultural tools and other rustic items.

THE WINES OF ETNA

Thanks to mineral-rich volcanic soil, an extremely low yield and a varied climate (temperatures can range from 30°C to 0°C in a single day), the vineyards on Etna’s foothills have the potential to produce some of Italy’s most interesting wines. They were also some of the only vineyards in Europe to survive the phylloxera epidemic of the late nineteenth century – the virus couldn’t pass through volcanic powder, sand or snow. The richness and complexity of the grapes grown here has led several producers to rebel against the trend of ageing wines in small wood barriques, preferring instead to use stainless-steel vats or even ceramic amphorae, so that there is nothing to interfere with the natural taste of the grape. At the vanguard of this movement are the highly talented Tuscan wine-producer Andrea Franchetti, whose Etna vineyards produce the international award-winning Passopisciaro ( tel_icon 366 358 9926, web_icon passopisciaro.com); and eccentric Belgian Frank Cornelissen (no phone; frankcornelissen.it), who spurns the use of sulphates in wines such as Magma and Munjibello, which now enjoy a cult following (especially in Japan) for their extreme unpredictability. These days Etna even has a celebrity winemaker in Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, who owns the Il Cantante vineyard ( tel_icon 095 716 9255, web_icon ilcantante.com and 393 189 8430, quincunx.it) on the eastern slope of Etna, near Sant’Alfio, and who is working with one of the volcano’s most highly regarded winemakers, the pioneer, environmentalist and visionary Salvo Foti, who has an almost mystical approach to winemaking. You can get a (free) tour of all the above vineyards by appointment.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: RANDAZZO

By Circumetnea train Arriving on the Circumetnea, walk straight up Via Vittorio Véneto to reach the central Piazza Loreto, with the medieval town further on, down Via Umberto I.

Destinations Catania (up to 7 daily Mon–Sat; 2hr 20min); Linguaglossa (4 daily Mon–Sat; 35min); Riposto (4 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 10min).

By bus The bus station is a couple of blocks back from Piazza Loreto off Via Vittorio Véneto. There are frequent connections with Catania (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat; 1hr 45min), and limited services (early morning and lunchtime) to several other places you might want to visit, such as Bronte, Castiglione di Sicilia and Gole Alcantara. There’s also a morning bus (leaving at 8am) to Taormina.

Tourist information You’ll find a limited amount of information on Etna and the surrounding area at the Parco dei Nébrodi tourist office, on the way to the museum at Via Umberto I 197 (daily 9am–1pm & 3–7.30pm; tel_icon 095 799 1611, web_icon parcodeinebrodi.it).

ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING

Ai Tre Parchi Bed and Bike Via Tagliamento 49 tel_icon 095 799 1631 or 329 897 0901, web_icon aitreparchibb.it. Excellent place offering B&B rooms and self-catering apartments, plus bike rental and local bike tours. To reach Via Tagliamento, turn left off Via Vittorio Véneto from the station. Doubles €80

Da Antonio Via Pietro Nenni 8 tel_icon 095 799 2534. Best place in town for typical local dishes and pizzas (€6–10); the house antipasto is really good, too. The restaurant is a few hundred metres from Piazza Loreto – walk down the Linguaglossa road, past the petrol stations, and it’s up a side road on the right. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

San Giorgio e Il Drago Piazza San Giorgio 28 tel_icon 095 923 972. Cosy trattoria housed in a nineteenth-century wine cellar, run by Samantha and Daniele Anzalone with food cooked by their two mothers. In spring, there’s the chance to eat home-made pasta with wild asparagus; in autumn, look out for dishes using porcini mushrooms collected from the woods of Etna; and in winter sausage fried with wild greens. Expect to pay around €30 per head for a full meal. Mon & Wed–Sun dinner only.

Castello Nelson

Daily 9am–1pm & 2.30–5pm, summer until 7pm • €3, gardens only €1.50

About 12km west of Randazzo, just off the SS120, lies the estate given to Lord Nelson as part of his dukedom, granted by King Ferdinand in gratitude for British help in repressing the Neapolitan revolution of 1799, which had forced the Bourbon court to flee to Palermo. Although Nelson never got round to visiting his Sicilian property, his family, the Bridports, only relinquished control in 1978. Surrounded by a wooded estate, it’s now owned by the Comune, but is still known (and signposted) as the Castello Nelson. Its original name was Maniace, after the convent founded here in 1174 on the site of a victory over the Arabs by George Maniakes. The 1693 earthquake destroyed much of this building, but as you pass through the walls you’ll see the restored thirteenth-century chapel with its chunky lava columns and Byzantinesque icon, the so-called Madonna di Maniace. As for the house itself, were it not for the beautiful tiled floors, restored to match the original pattern in yellow, rose and blue, it could easily be mistaken for an English country residence. Its style and furnishings – wallpaper, maritime paintings – were defined by Alexander Hood, one of the Bridports, who lived here for sixty years until the 1930s. The same Englishness is evident in the well-tended garden, planted with box hedges, magnolias and palm trees.

On the other side of the river lies the only part of the estate still owned by Nelson’s descendants, the English cemetery. Its most celebrated occupant is the Scottish author William Sharp (1855–1905), who wrote under the name of Fiona Macleod and was a regular visitor here.

FROM TOP CASTELLO NELSON; PISTACHIOS, BRONTE

Bronte

A small, unassuming town with a noble past, BRONTE lies half an hour’s drive southwest of Randazzo along the SS284. It was founded by Charles V in 1535, and many echoes of its original layout survive, particularly in the numerous battlemented campanili that top its ageing churches. The town gave its name both to the dukedom bestowed upon Nelson and to Yorkshire’s trio of novelists, the Brontë sisters, whose father, the Rev Patrick Prunty, harboured such an obsession for Nelson that he changed his name to Brontë (and added an umlaut). Otherwise, Bronte’s sole claim to fame these days is as the centre of Italy’s pistachio production: the plantations around town account for 85 percent of the country’s output, but are only harvested in the early autumn of odd-numbered years. The nuts are widely used in Sicilian pasta dishes (including a famously tasty shrimp and nut concoction), while not surprisingly the town’s cafés do a great line in pistachio granitas, ice cream and other goodies.

BRONTE’S PISTACHIOS

The mineral-rich volcanic soil of Bronte produces what are considered to be the best pistachios in Italy, grown in the exquisitely tended orchards that stretch around the town. In fact, Sicily is the only place in Italy where the pistachio tree grows, and Bronte itself is responsible for eighty percent of the production. There is no shortage of places to sample the striking violet-and-green nut in town – and indeed throughout Sicily; take home a jar of pistachio pesto, or a box of pistachio biscuits, or taste either in situ at one of the cafés lining Bronte’s main corso, such as Conti Gallenti, Corso Umberto 1 (Mon & Wed–Sun 6am–10pm; tel_icon 095 691 165), an unassuming little place that has changed little since the 1970s, famous for its pistachio arancini and ice cream.

< Back to Catania, Etna and around

Catania, Etna and around

Highlights

Catania

STAYING SAFE IN CATANIA

Brief history

Piazza del Duomo

The Duomo

THE FESTA DI SANT’AGATA

Museo Diocesano and the Terme Achilliane

The Pescheria

Via Vittorio Emanuele II

Teatro Romano

Castello Ursino and the Museo Civico

Via Crociferi

Museo Belliniano

San Nicolò

Via Etnea and around

Anfiteatro Romano

Sant’Agata al Carcere

Fera o Luni market

Villa Bellini

Zo: the centre for contemporary culture

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CATANIA

BY PLANE

BY TRAIN

BY BUS

BY FAST FERRY AND HYDROFOIL

GETTING AROUND

INFORMATION

CATANIA CITY TOURS AND ETNA EXCURSIONS

ACCOMMODATION

HOTELS AND B&BS

HOSTELS

EATING, DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE

CATANIA’S STREET FOOD

RESTAURANTS

CAFÉS AND BARS

ENTERTAINMENT

CULTURE AND THE ARTS

SHOPPING IN CATANIA

DIRECTORY

Catania’s beach resorts

The resorts

THE SCOGLI DEI CICLOPI

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CATANIA’S BEACH RESORTS

Acireale

ACIREALE DRESSES UP

Santa Maria la Scala

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ACIREALE

Lentini

Carlentini

Zona Archeologica

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: LENTINI

EATING

Mount Etna

SNOW, ICE AND THE BISHOP

Approaches to Etna

THE FERROVIA CIRCUMETNEA

Etna Nord

ETNA NORD BY ORGANIZED TOUR

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: ETNA NORD

Etna Sud

THE ASCENT OF ETNA FROM RIFUGIO SAPIENZA

Torre del Filosofo

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ETNA SUD

ACCOMMODATION

Nicolosi

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: NICOLOSI

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

Zafferana Etnea

MOUNT ETNA’S ERUPTIONS

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: ZAFFERANA ETNEA

ACCOMMODATION

Milo

Etna Adventure

Randazzo

Museo Vagliasindi

THE WINES OF ETNA

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: RANDAZZO

ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING