5 Days in Catania

Start where the city starts its day. The Pescheria (Piscarìa in Sicilian) is the old fish market of Catania, and its stalls have stood, since at least the early 1800s, in a tunnel dug in the 1500s under the walls of Charles V, behind the cathedral square. The sea used to come right up to the market. Today the old fishermen's harbor is a park, and the fish still arrive here.

It's loud and wet, and the folklore is the point. Walk the length of it, buy something to taste if you want, and photograph the fish rather than the sellers. It's a morning market with no official hours: stalls start before dawn and many pack up around midday, so arrive by 8 if you can.

Climb the few steps from the market and you're in the main square, a good place to understand Catania. In the middle stands the Fountain of the Elephant, u Liotru to the locals, the symbol of the city. Giovanni Battista Vaccarini built it in 1735-37 around an older black lava elephant of uncertain date, whose back legs shattered in the 1693 earthquake and were redone. The small Egyptian-style obelisk on top is granite.

The cathedral of Saint Agatha behind it began as a Norman fortress-church in 1078-1093, built over Roman baths. Earthquakes took most of it, and The baroque front is Vaccarini's work from the rebuilding. Look at the sides and the apses and you'll see the older Norman stone, lava blocks recycled from Roman buildings. Inside, Vincenzo Bellini, the composer who was born in Catania, is buried against a pillar in the southern aisle. Saint Agatha is the patron saint and her feast, three days from 3 February, is the biggest event of the year; avoid it unless you like crowds.

Ten minutes uphill from the cathedral, the Via dei Crociferi is baroque Catania in one street. In about 400 meters there are four churches, convents and a Jesuit college, all in the style that followed the 1693 earthquake. Start at the arch of San Benedetto, which crosses the street to link two parts of the same Benedictine convent, and walk uphill past the church of San Francesco Borgia and the convex front of San Giuliano, usually attributed to Vaccarini, to the villa at the top.

It's the most photogenic street in the city. Some churches open only on certain days, so treat it as a walk rather than a checklist, and go in whichever door is open.

Catania is also a Greek and Roman city, but you have to go underground or into the backyards to find it. The Roman theatre, built in the 1st century CE on the remains of an earlier Greek one, once held about 7,000 people, and the smaller Odeon next to it was added in the 2nd century CE. The entrance is at Via Vittorio Emanuele II 266, in the middle of an ordinary city block.

It's a short visit, and a good one if you've had enough churches: baroque Catania sits on a Greek and Roman city, and this is where you see the layers.

Back at the square, one of the bars that face the elephant is as good a place as any to meet Catania's most argued-over snack. Here the arancino (masculine: the west of the island says arancina) is cone-shaped, said to copy the volcano, and filled with either ragù and peas or burro, butter, ham and mozzarella. Prestipino, on this square, is one of the names that comes up in the arguments about who makes the best.

Eat it at the counter, still hot, with a coffee. One is a snack, two is lunch.

Walk ten minutes south through the old streets and the castle appears at the end, a squat square block with round corner towers. Emperor Frederick II built it between 1239 and 1250 to hold the city for the crown, and in 1295 the Sicilian Parliament sat here when it deposed one king and chose another. Back then it stood on a cliff over the sea. Eruptions and earthquakes pushed the shore away, and in the 17th century lava filled its moat, so it now stands about a kilometer inland among ordinary streets.

Inside is the civic museum, with Greek and Roman finds, medieval pieces and paintings. The rooms are interesting but not essential. The real reason to come is the building itself, with a pentagram in black lava stone on the east wall.

Dinner tonight is the dish that Catania claims as its own. Pasta alla Norma is short pasta with tomato sauce, slices of fried eggplant, basil and salted ricotta grated over the top, and it's named for Bellini's opera Norma. A popular story says the writer Nino Martoglio tasted it and called it a real Norma, meaning a masterpiece, but the name isn't recorded until decades after his death, so take the story with salt.

Order it in any family trattoria in the streets between the cathedral and the castle, a place with a short menu on paper and fish from the market. Some restaurants close one weekday, often Monday or Tuesday, so check first.

The classic Catanese breakfast is a granita with a brioscia, a soft round bun with a little knob on top, the tuppo. Granita, the scraped, half-frozen ice of Sicily, is smoothest on the east of the island, almost as soft as a sorbet. Typical flavors are almond, black mulberry, coffee and lemon. You tear off pieces of bun, dunk them in the ice and spoon the rest.

Savia, a long-standing bar and pastry shop at Via Etnea 302, and Spinella next door are the two names that come up most. The combination is a summer breakfast, so in colder months ask what is on offer.

Just up the road from the pastry shops, the Giardino Bellini, or Villa Bellini, is the public garden at the top of Via Etnea, named for Catania's most famous composer. It isn't a grand park, but after a morning of black stone it's a green pause, and from here it's downhill to the cathedral.

Via Etnea is the old north-south axis of the Roman city, the cardo maximus, a long straight street with Etna at the end of it on a clear day. Walk down it toward the cathedral and stop at Piazza Stesicoro, where the remains of the Roman amphitheater lie in the middle of the square. They're modest, so think of it as a quick look rather than a major sight.

Further down, at number 23, the Collegiata is a baroque church worth a look if it's open. The point of Via Etnea is the walk itself.

Catania eats horse, and the streets around the Benedictine Monastery are where it is best known. If you eat meat and are curious, this is the place to try it, and in the evening some big kiosks sell hot sandwiches with a horse meat filling, usually with fries inside.

It isn't for everyone, and that's fine. A cipollina, the local baked pastry stuffed with stewed onion, tomato and mozzarella, is a good non-horse choice and sold at most rosticcerie.

The Monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena is the reason to come to Catania with time to spare. Founded in 1558, it ranks with the Palace of Mafra in Portugal among the largest Benedictine monasteries in Europe. The lava of 1669 flowed around it and left it on a 12-meter bench of black rock, and the 1693 earthquake brought down everything but the basements. The monks rebuilt between 1702 and 1866, until the new Italian state took the property. In 1977 it passed to the university, which still teaches there, and the architect Giancarlo De Carlo led the restoration from 1984.

The guided visit is the way to see it: the two cloisters, the basement with Roman houses inside it and the Novices' garden, which stands on top of the 1669 lava. English tours run daily, and spots are limited, so book on the official site. Outside tour times you can wander only the academic areas of the university, and that's far less interesting.

Finish at the 19th-century opera house named after Vincenzo Bellini, the composer of Norma, born in Catania in 1801 and dead at 33. His tomb is in the cathedral you saw yesterday. The square in front of the theatre is a popular meeting place for young locals, and the streets around it are lively by night.

If there's a performance on, a ticket is the best evening you can have here. If not, order an aperitivo on the square and watch the city go by.

Rifugio Sapienza, at about 1,900 meters on the south slope, is the end of the public road and the start of the cable car, the Funivia dell'Etna. It's a plain place of cinders, parking and a few cafés; the mountain is the attraction. The cable car takes you from 1,923 meters to the upper station at 2,500, over old craters and lava flows, with the coast visible for more than 100 kilometers on a clear day.

From the top you can see the summit craters on one side and the sea on the other. The cable car alone is a good half-day, but it stops at 2,500 meters, and what lies above has rules of its own. Equipment such as a windbreaker, boots and poles can be rented at the upper station. Check the Funivia's website and webcam before you set off, because the cable car runs only when weather and technical conditions allow.

The Tour 3000 is the route most visitors take up the volcano. After the cable car, a 4x4 bus (a snowcat in winter) climbs the private road to the highest point the authorities allow on the day, and a volcano guide then leads the group past old craters and recent lava flows. Be careful with the name: 3,000 is the headline altitude, but the operator itself says the bus goes to the maximum altitude allowed, which changes with the volcano. Here is the honest picture of the rules. The INGV observatory in Catania monitors Etna, and regional civil protection sets an alert phase. Above about 2,500 meters is the summit zone, with a permanent hazard zone around the active craters. The rules below come from an ordinance of the municipality of Belpasso, whose land lies on the south slope, signed on 10 August 2026 and open-ended; other municipalities on the mountain can have their own. While the attention phase applies, visits to the hazard zone are allowed only with qualified guides, in groups of up to 10, with a helmet, and nobody gets within 300 meters of the Southeast Crater. At pre-alarm the hazard zone is closed to everyone, and at alarm the whole summit zone above 2,500 meters is closed and cleared. The bans start automatically when the alert is issued and lift the same way.

Activity changes access without notice. Etna erupted in August 2026, with a new phase at the Voragine crater and lava flowing into the Valle del Bove, and ash disrupted flights at Catania airport for about a week. That is a dated example, not today's status: what is open on your day depends on the alert phase then. Ask about change and refund rules when you book, expect the upper part of the tour to be shortened or cancelled on some days, and treat the summit craters as a bonus. The tour isn't recommended for people with heart or breathing problems, high blood pressure or pregnancy.

If you only have a short time, or the upper mountain is closed, the Silvestri Craters are the easy version of Etna. A path leaves directly from the road near Rifugio Sapienza and runs around the rim of the lower crater, with benches and no climbing. The craters formed during the eruption that started on 9 July 1892 and lasted 173 days, with lava fountains up to 400 meters high.

Walk the rim, look up at the red and black cinders, and then down over the old craters toward the sea. It's open every day from 8:30am to 5pm and takes half an hour. Dogs are allowed. It's the best-value stop on the mountain, and it works when everything higher is closed.

The bus brings you back to town around 6:30pm, so finish by tasting the volcano. Etna's volcanic soil makes some of Sicily's best-known wine. The red comes mostly from the nerello mascalese grape, named after Mascali on the slopes of the volcano, and the Etna DOC has been recognized since 1968. Order a glass of Etna Rosso at an enoteca or restaurant in the center, and ask the waiter to pick.

To visit the vineyards themselves you realistically need a car or a tour, so give that a separate day.

The Ancient Theatre of Taormina was built by the Greeks around the 3rd century BC and rebuilt by the Romans, probably under Hadrian or Trajan. It is more Roman than Greek now, in brick, with a semicircle about 107 meters across that could seat around 10,000 people. A good part of the stage wall survives, which is rare, and that is why the view works: through the arches you see the coast and, on a clear day, Etna.

Arrive when it opens and walk to the top of the seating first, before the tour groups reach it. The theatre is still a venue today, home to the annual Taormina Film Festival. Allow an hour.

Walk down from the theatre along Corso Umberto, the pedestrian main street that runs the whole length of the old town. The Palazzo Corvaja, with an Arab tower from the 10th century, is on the way. Halfway along is Piazza IX Aprile, a terrace facing the sea and Etna, with a clock tower at the corner.

This is the Taormina of the guidebook: stylish and crowded. Walk it once, take the photograph from the terrace, and look for lunch on a side lane rather than on the Corso itself, where prices follow the view.

A famous granita bar sits on Via di Giovanni, behind the theatre, and queues form from mid-morning. The classics are almond and lemon, with a brioche. In the off-season it can be closed on Mondays, so check; on a Thursday, as in this plan, it should be open.

If the queue is long, any bar will sell you the same thing. Eat it before you go down to the sea, because the afternoon is a lot of walking.

The public gardens at the south end of town, officially the Parco Duca di Cesarò, were laid out by Florence Trevelyan, an English conservationist who settled in Taormina and also bought Isola Bella. It's a quiet place to sit among planted gardens and little follies, a short break after the Corso. It opens at 8am and closes at sunset.

From here, the way to the sea is the cable car down to Mazzarò, or the local bus.

Take the cable car from the town down to Mazzarò, then walk five or ten minutes to Isola Bella, a small island in a cove joined to the shore by a narrow isthmus of pebbles that is often walkable. It was given to the town by King Ferdinand I in 1806 and bought in 1890 by the English Florence Trevelyan, who built a small house and planted exotic gardens. Since 1990 it has been a nature reserve with an entry fee for the island itself, and the beach is separate and free.

The beach is small and rocky, with sharp volcanic shingle, so bring water shoes. The sea is comfortable from about June to October and warmest from July to September, and by November it's cool. In the cold months, come for the walk and the view.

The Neapolis, the New City, is the district Syracuse grew into from 485 BC, and the park holds its big public buildings. The Greek Theatre, from around 470 BC and the largest in Sicily, is cut into the hillside, and Greek plays are staged there between May and July. The Latomia del Paradiso is a deep, green hollow where the quarries once stood, and in it is the Ear of Dionysius, a limestone cave 23 meters high and 65 meters deep. Caravaggio gave it its name in 1608, after the tyrant Dionysius I, who by one legend used its echo to eavesdrop on prisoners. It was most likely dug as a quarry and water store.

There's also the Roman amphitheater, about 140 meters long, mostly carved from the hillside, and the Ara di Ierone II, the foundation of a huge altar nearly 200 meters long. Do the Greek Theatre and the Ear first and the amphitheater last. The theatre may be partly closed or covered with temporary seating around the drama season, so go in knowing the stage may not be open.

Walk or ride south over the bridge onto Ortigia, the small island that is the oldest part of the city, whose name comes from the Greek word for quail. The first thing you reach is the ruin of the Temple of Apollo, which you can only look at from behind a railing. Right behind it is the outdoor market, which has stood on Via Emanuele de Benedictis since the 1980s.

It's one of the best places in Sicily for a cheap, honest lunch. Stalls sell fish, vegetables, cheese and cured meat, and a sandwich shop such as Caseificio Borderi stuffs rolls with cheese and Sicilian cold cuts to order. The market is a morning affair with no official hours, and the stalls thin out in the early afternoon, so go before 1pm; at midday the queues are long.

The Cathedral of Syracuse is the best single building in this part of Sicily, because it is a Greek temple with a church inside it. The Temple of Athena was built in the 6th century BC. In the 7th century, under Bishop Zosimo, it became a church, with the Doric columns built into its walls, and they are still there, visible from both inside and out. It was a mosque from 878 until the Normans took the city in 1086.

The baroque front is a later addition, rebuilt between 1725 and 1753 after the 1693 earthquake, and it is a lovely backdrop to the square. On the same piazza is Santa Lucia alla Badia, where Caravaggio's Burial of St. Lucy used to hang; the painting is now in the church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, on the mainland side of the city.

Walk south to the sea along the lanes to the Fountain of Arethusa, a freshwater spring on the seafront, ringed with papyrus. In Greek myth, Arethusa was a nymph who fled under the sea from Arcadia and came up here, and the papyrus that grows in the pool is one of the few places in Europe where the plant grows wild.

At the far tip of the island is the Castello Maniace, a fortress built between 1232 and 1240 for Emperor Frederick II and named after the Byzantine general George Maniakes, who took the city in 1038. A huge explosion damaged it in 1704. It's worth a look if it's open, but hours are short in winter. Otherwise, the sea walk to it is already the reward.

End the trip with a slow walk along the sea wall on the east side of Ortigia, the Foro Italico. Find a bar with a view of the water and order an aperitivo. Most of the day-trippers have left by then.

Before you settle in, check the last bus and train to Catania, and allow 15 to 20 minutes to walk from the island to the stations.