Italy · Sicilia · Cities of art
the city black with lava beneath Etna, from the morning Pescheria to via Etnea
Catania is black, because it is built with the lava of Etna, which stands above it. It was founded by the Greeks of Naxos in 729 BC, it was Roman, Arab and Norman, and its history is a series of rebuildings: in 1669 the Etna lava flow reached the walls and surrounded the castle, in 1693 the Val di Noto earthquake razed it almost entirely. It was rebuilt in Baroque style in the eighteenth century, with wide straight streets and black lava stone next to white stone, and Giovanni Battista Vaccarini designed the façade of the Duomo, the Elephant fountain and the Badia di Sant'Agata. Today it is one of the eight towns of the Val di Noto on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Mornings are lived at the Pescheria, behind the cathedral square; the rest of the day along via Etnea, which climbs straight towards the volcano. Under the streets, in pieces, lies the Roman city: the theatre, the amphitheatre, the baths beneath the cathedral.
Sleeping
Catania has a reputation for thefts from vehicles, and for a night a guarded place counts for more than a close one.
Viale Giovanni da Verrazzano 25, 95121 Catania
a private car park, guarded twenty four hours a day and next to a carabinieri barracks, which is the only stopover in the city that declares itself guarded. It is on the right side for leaving towards the A19 and Palermo. Recent reviews are lukewarm, the neighbourhood is not pretty and you go into the centre by bus or taxi
Viale Presidente Kennedy 1, 95121 Catania
the area of a beach club at the Playa, from which the cathedral square is about twenty minutes on foot, with the gate closed at night. The drawback is Friday: at weekends the beach club holds parties until dawn. The coordinate is that of the beach club
Getting around
The old town is explored on foot and the motorhome stays at the stopover: via Etnea is pedestrian, and around it there are limited traffic zones with cameras at the gates.
Seeing
A walk from the cathedral square towards the sea and then uphill: the Pescheria and the Castello Ursino, the Roman theatre and via Crociferi, the Monastero dei Benedettini, and finally via Etnea up to the amphitheatre and the Giardino Bellini. It is a full day, two if you go inside everywhere. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
Square · free entry · 37.50249, 15.08709
Piazza Duomo, 95124 Catania
the city's square, with the cathedral, the Palazzo degli Elefanti, which is the town hall, and the Palazzo dei Chierici. In the middle is the Elephant fountain, which Vaccarini built between 1735 and 1737: an elephant of lava stone of uncertain age, with an Egyptian style granite obelisk on its back. The people of Catania call it u Liotru, from the name of Eliodoro, a magician of legend, and it has been the symbol of the city at least since 1239. On the south side is the Amenano fountain, by Tito Angelini, from 1867: the water overflows the basin like a sheet, hence the saying acqua a linzolu, and falls back into the Amenano river, which flows two metres beneath the square. Behind the fountain a lava stone staircase goes down to the Pescheria.
Church · 37.50252, 15.08823
Via Vittorio Emanuele II 163, 95131 Catania
the Normans built it between 1086 and 1094 on the ruins of the Roman baths, as a fortress church. The 1693 earthquake left only the apses and the façade standing; of the Norman apses, made of lava stone blocks, the three curves can still be seen from the courtyard of the archbishop's palace. Today's façade is by Vaccarini, who worked on it from 1734 to 1761. Inside, against the second pillar on the right, is the tomb of Vincenzo Bellini, brought back from Paris in 1876; in the chapel of Sant'Agata, in the little room, the cammaredda, are kept the reliquary bust and the casket with the relics of the patron saint, which come out for the feasts of February and August. The cathedral's website does not publish visiting hours: the ones here are the Comune's.
Museum · paid entry · 37.50194, 15.08771
Via Etnea 8, 95121 Catania
the museum of the diocese, in the Palazzo dei Chierici next to the cathedral, with the cathedral treasury and the room of the fercolo of Sant'Agata. From its terraces, above Porta Uzeda, you see on one side the square with the Elephant and via Etnea climbing towards Etna, on the other the port and the Archi della Marina. From the museum you go down to the Terme Achilliane, the Roman baths of the fourth and fifth century that remained beneath the square, where the Amenano flows: you reach them through a corridor among the foundations of the cathedral. The website still publishes the summer 2025 hours, with Sundays by booking: ask for today's hours by phone.
Viewpoint · paid entry · 37.50310, 15.08808
Via Vittorio Emanuele II 182, 95131 Catania
the church of the Benedictine convent facing the north side of the cathedral, rebuilt after the earthquake between 1735 and 1767 to a design by Vaccarini, with a façade that bends forwards and backwards. Inside it is white, all stucco and marble. The reason to go up is the dome, the first to rise in the rebuilt city: since 2015 you can climb to the terraces from which the nuns watched the processions, and higher up to the walkway around the dome, at about forty metres, with the whole centre around you, the cathedral up close, the Castello Ursino, via Crociferi, the Benedictine monastery and the sea. On Sundays and holidays there is mass at 20:00.
Monument · paid entry · 37.50205, 15.09060
Via Museo Biscari 10, 95131 Catania
the most important private palace in Catania, belonging to the princes of Biscari, built after the earthquake on top of the sixteenth century walls of Charles V, which the Biscari were allowed to use as foundations. Towards the sea it has seven large windows carved by Antonino Amato. In 1787 the prince received Goethe here. It is visited with a guide, in half an hour, in turns in Italian, English and French; for a group, phone ahead.
Market · free entry · 37.50160, 15.08716
Piazza Alonzo di Benedetto, 95121 Catania
the fish market, the Piscarìa, with its stalls inside the tunnel dug in the sixteenth century beneath the Palazzo dei Chierici and the walls of Charles V, in front of the Archi della Marina, where the fishermen's little harbour once was. You go down to it by the staircase behind the Amenano fountain. In the square there is also the fontana dei Sette Canali, from 1612, one of the oldest in the city. The Comune does not publish market hours: ask in town for the days and times.
Castle · 37.49897, 15.08463
Piazza Federico II di Svevia 21, 95121 Catania
the castle that Frederick II of Swabia had built from 1239, square, with four round towers at the corners and lava stone walls two and a half metres thick. In 1295 the Sicilian parliament met here, and later the Aragonese kings lived in it. It stood on the sea: the 1669 lava flow surrounded it, buried the bastions and pushed the coast away, and today it stands in the middle of the city. Inside is the Museo civico, with the collections of the Biscari and the Benedictines, but the Comune lists it as closed for restoration: the castle is seen from outside, from the pedestrian square, and before going for the museum, phone ahead.
Monument · paid entry · 37.50286, 15.08357
Via Vittorio Emanuele II 266, Catania
the ancient theatre at the foot of the Montevergine hill, which was the acropolis of the Greek city. What you see is Roman, of the first and second century AD, built where there was already a Greek theatre; next to it is the Odeon, the small theatre with about fifteen hundred seats for music and rehearsals. Abandoned in the fifth and sixth century, they were covered by houses, and you still enter by passing between the buildings of via Vittorio Emanuele: two of those houses, Casa Pandolfo and Casa Liberti, serve as an antiquarium with what came out of the excavations. It is run by the Region's archaeological park, and is open all year.
Museum · paid entry · 37.50260, 15.08439
Piazza San Francesco d'Assisi 3, 95124 Catania
the house where Vincenzo Bellini was born on the night between 2 and 3 November 1801 and lived until he was sixteen, on the first floor of Palazzo Gravina Cruyllas, opposite the church of San Francesco, a short walk from the Roman theatre. The route goes from the alcove where he was born to the small funeral room, with autograph music manuscripts, the death mask and, on the main floor, the collection of pianos. It has been a national monument since 1923. The ticket is also valid for the Museo Emilio Greco, dedicated to the sculptor.
Walk · free entry · 37.50438, 15.08480
the street of the churches and convents of the rebuilt city: in about four hundred metres, from piazza San Francesco, under the arch of San Benedetto that joins the large Badia to the small one, there are four churches, San Benedetto, San Francesco Borgia, Vaccarini's San Giuliano, with its curved façade, and San Camillo, with the Jesuit college and Villa Cerami at the end. It is pedestrian and has been the set of many films, among them Il bell'Antonio and Storia di una capinera. On the evening of 5 February, during the feast, the Benedictine nuns sing here for Sant'Agata as the fercolo passes.
Monument · paid entry · 37.50364, 15.08056
Piazza Dante 32, Catania
the monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena, begun in 1558, which at two hundred and ten metres by one hundred and thirty is held to be the second largest Benedictine monastery in Europe. The 1669 lava reached its walls, the 1693 earthquake brought it down and killed almost all the monks, and it was rebuilt larger throughout the eighteenth century; an English traveller in 1773 called it the Sicilian Versailles. Since 1977 it has belonged to the University, which with Giancarlo De Carlo's project made it the Department of Humanities. The guided tour by Officine Culturali goes through the cloisters, the sixteenth century basement with the Roman houses, the Novices' Garden, the eighteenth century kitchens and the grand staircase. Next to it is the church of San Nicolò l'Arena, where the Comune opens the gutter walk, high up along the cornice: 3 euros, 1 euro between 11 and 18 years.
Monument · paid entry · 37.50741, 15.08544
Piazza Stesicoro, Catania
the Roman amphitheatre of the second century, of lava stone, which could hold fifteen thousand spectators; Roger the Norman took its blocks for the cathedral, and after the 1693 earthquake it was covered by houses. A tenth of it can be seen, the north-western part, in a large pit in the square excavated between 1904 and 1906, and you go down into the corridors under the street. On the west side of the square is the church of San Biagio, known as Sant'Agata alla Fornace because it stands where tradition places the furnace of the saint's martyrdom, which is kept inside under glass; on the opposite side the monument to Vincenzo Bellini by Giulio Monteverde, from 1882. The Stesicoro metro stop is here.
Park · free entry · 37.51099, 15.08379
Via Etnea 292, 95131 Catania
to the people of Catania it is simply 'a Villa: the public garden at the end of via Etnea, the street of the noble palaces of the rebuilding, which climbs straight from the cathedral square for three kilometres towards the volcano. The garden grew out of the eighteenth century labyrinth of the prince of Biscari, bought by the Comune in 1863 and opened in 1883. From the via Etnea entrance you climb the grand staircase to the swan pond, the flower clock of 1962 and the bust of Bellini; near the piazza Roma entrance there is a great Ficus magnolioides, a monumental tree with roots hanging down from its branches. On Sunday mornings the students of the Boggio Lera high school guide visitors through the cryptoporticus, the eighteenth century galleries under the garden.
When
Two feasts of Sant'Agata, the big one in February and the summer one, and an autumn month when the city opens the places that are usually closed.
Next: Le Vie dei Tesori · 10 Oct - 8 Novin 4 days
the festival that for a month opens noble palaces, churches, ancient bath complexes and small museums that are usually closed, with walks and experiences on the lava and in the gardens; in 2026 it is the ninth edition in Catania, together with Acireale. You enter with a coupon of 3 euros for one visit, 10 for four or 18 for ten, valid at all the sites of the province and shareable among several people; children under 6 do not pay. Visits are booked on the festival website, and those who do not book get in only if there is room; walks and experiences have a separate coupon
the feast of the patron saint, in memory of her martyrdom. On the 3rd, the offering of the wax: the procession with the eighteenth century carriages of the Senate and the candelore, the great carved candles of the guilds carried on the shoulders with a swaying step, climbs via Etnea to Sant'Agata alla Fornace and returns to the cathedral, and in the evening there are fireworks in piazza Duomo. On the 4th, at dawn, after the dawn mass, the reliquary bust on the silver fercolo of 1518 makes the outer tour of the city, pulled with ropes by devotees dressed in the white sacco and black cap, and returns to the cathedral at first light on the 5th. On the 5th, after the pontifical mass, the inner tour: up via Etnea, the climb of via Di Sangiuliano and via Crociferi, with the singing of the Benedictine nuns, ending on the morning of the 6th. People eat the minne di Sant'Agata, the cassatelle that recall the martyrdom, and the green olivette of almond paste
the feast that commemorates the return of the relics from Constantinople, on 17 August 1126. In the morning the relics leave the shrine and are placed on the high altar, and the faithful can see them up close in the chapel of Sant'Agata; in the evening, after the archbishop's mass, the procession with the relics makes a short tour, from the cathedral square through Porta Uzeda, via Dusmet and piazza San Placido. The day before, the saint's veil is carried in procession. The programme comes out in July on the cathedral's website
Remember
Catania · part two
and then?
What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Catania is the city of Pasta alla Norma: macaroni with tomato sauce, fried aubergines, ricotta salata and basil. The name comes from Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, and the most told story is that of the playwright Nino Martoglio, who in front of the dish is said to have called it a Norma, that is, something perfect. In eastern Sicily arancini are made in the shape of a cone. For Sant'Agata there are the sweets of the feast, the minne and the olivette of almond paste, and from the slopes of Etna, at Bronte, comes the pistachio.
Looking
29 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.