Tuesday Sept 19 – Captivating Catania

We left our lovely Syracuse apartment this morning and walked to the bus station to board the bus to Catania – a pleasant one and a half hour journey.  It was just a five minute walk to our new home – a beautiful traditional apartment in a building that is no doubt a couple of centuries old.  Anna, our host, is a delight and she has laid on milk, butter, water, yoghurt, eggs, breads and even a bottle of local chardonnay for our arrival. The apartment itself is living history – high ceilings, tapestries and old prints on all walls, period furniture and doors leading on to terraces everywhere.  We quickly set off to the local fish market and stocked up with jumbo prawns, squid and fish cutlets for the next couple of nights and supplemented these with beautiful ripe tomatoes, grapes and peaches (we had already noted that Anna has basil, sage, parsley and chillies growing in pots on one of our balconies). We returned to the apartment, stopping for a quick lunch on the way, and indulged in a one-hour S.C.A.N. (senior citizens’ afternoon nap) before again setting off to explore the nearby historic centre of Catania.

Catania is a true city of the volcano, much of it constructed from the lava that poured down the mountain and engulfed the city in Etna’s massive 1669 eruption, which lasted one hundred and twenty two days! It suffered further damage during the 1693 earthquake, so there was much rebuilding to be done.  The resulting buildings in lava and limestone are mainly baroque in style.  Again, pride of place goes to the Duomo: the Cathedral of St Agatha.  The interior is huge and the façade contains two columns taken from the Roman amphitheatre.  We took a walk through many of the streets of the old quarter, stopping to admire the Bellini Theatre, inaugurated in 1890; Bellini, one of Italy’s great opera composers, was born in Catania in 1801.  A highlight of our walk was a visit to the Greco-Roman theatre and Odeon, on a site populated since the establishment of the Greek Calcidian colony of Katane, founded in 729-728 BC.  The theatre was first built by the Romans in the first century AD on an existing Greek building, of which many traces have recently been found, and could hold about 7,000 spectators.  It was renovated and altered at various times during subsequent centuries and in late-Renaissance and Enlightenment times was largely built over for residential purposes, however in the past century or so its significance has been recognised, the residential overlay demolished and much of the original theatre has been restored and is used as a venue for concerts and plays.  The adjoining Odeon, holding about 1500 people, was built between the second and third century AD.  Although not at the same level of restoration, it has been partially repaired to maintain its integrity.  In all, a truly marvellous preservation of history.

Back to the Piazza Duomo, we stop to admire the Elephant Fountain, constructed in 1736, a smiling black-lava elephant dating from Roman times surmounted, for some reason, on an Egyptian obelisk. The elephant, probably a Byzantine relic, symbolises longevity and intelligence.  We also admired (but unfortunately could not enter due to a wedding taking place) the Basilica Collegiata St Marie dell’ Elemosina, one of the oldest churches in Sicily, dating back to the first century AD. 

We then made our way “home” to our lovely apartment where John prepared a delicious seafood and fresh fruit dinner (washed down with Anna’s chardonnay).  Tomorrow – up the coast a short distance to Taormina.