Guide of Catania, Italy

Catania, Italy

An ancient, medieval and then finally Baroque city, often attacked by the violence of nature and just as often rebuilt with determination and obstinacy.
Catania, the cradle of theatre and music, is a city to experience day and night, when the sun shines on its Baroque palaces, whose black lava stone and white limestone dominate the vision, and when the evening comes, the clubs open, the squares fill up with people up to the next morning.
Catania is famous for its legendary nightlife, and not just in Sicily. Legendary to the extent that it has the right to speak about its “movida”. Even if it isn’t quite normal here to have dinner after midnight like it is in Madrid, this Sicilian city has just as many clubs and places to enjoy oneself as the Spanish capital.
Catania is well known for Etna, the most imposing volcano in Europe: 3330 meter high, 210 km in perimeter with an overall surface area of 1600 square kilometers.
The luxuriant vegetation that grows at the foot of Etna changes depending on the altitude, Mediterranean scrub, chestnut woods, oak trees, pine trees, beech trees and birch trees, and higher up there are green meadows that lead to the permanently snow-capped peak of the volcano.
Love for nature is not the only reason for a trip to Etna: this area is so fertile and rich that many types of Sicilian typical products are grown here, that can be tried out in the several restaurants and inns that you find nearby.
Why not start off with an arancino di riso, in one of its thousand varieties, and with a delicious “crespella alle acciughe”. As a first course you have to try Pasta alla Norma a classic dish in Catania, that has become one of Sicily’s symbolic recipes. For your second course, choose a fish-based dish: the restaurants in Catania are famous for their fresh fish prepared in several different ways, depending on the chef’s imagination, but that are in keeping with traditional Sicilian cuisine.