Sicily: Catania (Nov 2007)

Next stop on my trip.....was Catania! This is another city I absolutely fell in love with, I could honestly see myself living there or at least visiting again. I was there for only about three days and spent most of the time wandering around the streets and markets, my favorite thing to do! I met two nice travellers from Australia at Agora' hostel (an awesome place! see the web site here: http://www.agorahostel.com/main/Home.htm ) and we ended up hanging out for awhile.

I spent most of my time walking through the open-air markets, and took many pictures there. I noticed here a much bigger focus on meat and fish, and a great number more of butchers and meat vendors than I had seen in any other market. Even though I had began eating meat again just a month before, my stomach turned numerous times upon seeing the cut open animal carcasses hanging proudly on display, and the butchers carving off fresh slabs of meat for sale.

I also saw a 2nd-century Greek-Roman theater, Duomo di Sant'Agata, Terme dell'Indirizzo, Villa Pacini, and other numerous ruin sites scattered throughout the city that I don't know the names of. From various spots throughout the city it is possible to see smoking Mt. Etna, which was covered in snow when I visited Catania. I read that Catania has been covered by lava from Mt. Etna seven different times, each layer covering up the ruins of ancient Greek and Roman cities. They say in Sicily to find ruins all you have to do is pick up a shovel and dig somewhere, and you will find something! I saw this throughout Catania, where in the middle of a busy street or underneath the hostel we could see the excavations of more ruins.

Here are a bunch of photos from my lovely visit to Catania: