Catania

The Pescheria at dawn and Etna by the Circumetnea

Two days in Catania split between the baroque centre and Etna. Day one covers the fish market, the cathedral of Sant'Agata, the Badia terraces, Via Etnea and the Benedictine Monastery. Day two goes to the volcano, on a guided excursion or by the Circumetnea railway to Bronte and Randazzo.

Day one, morning: get to the fish market behind Piazza del Duomo early, while the stalls are at their loudest. Then visit the cathedral of Sant'Agata, look in on the Museo Diocesano next door and take a tour up to the dome and terraces of the Badia di Sant'Agata on Via Vittorio Emanuele.

Afternoon: walk north along Via Etnea, stopping at the Bellini Gardens, then cut west to the vast Benedictine Monastery. Evening: join the locals on their slow walk back down Via Etnea, then order pasta alla Norma for dinner.

Day two belongs to Etna. Book a guided excursion for the higher slopes, or ride the Circumetnea round the western flanks to Bronte and Randazzo, watching the lava fields roll past (replacement buses cover the Catania end during metro works). If the summit is lost in cloud, spend the day on the black rocks of the Riviera dei Ciclopi instead, or on the sand at La Plaja.

Pasta alla Norma, cassatelle and seltz al limone

Catania's signature dish is pasta alla Norma: macaroni with tomato, fried aubergine, ricotta salata and basil. Fish from the market behind the cathedral is excellent. For sweets, order a ricotta cannolo or a cassatella di Sant'Agata, and drink seltz al limone at a street kiosk on a hot afternoon.

Catanese cooking is a matter of local pride. The headline dish is pasta alla Norma: macaroni in tomato sauce under slices of fried aubergine, grated ricotta salata and fresh basil. Fish is excellent in a city with a big port, and the market behind the cathedral shows what is in season. Around the Benedictine Monastery you will also find places serving horse meat, a long-standing Catanese habit.

For sweets, look for the cannolo filled with ricotta, the cassatella di Sant'Agata, a small domed cassata made for the city's patron saint, and pasta di mandorla, soft almond biscuits. For a cheap lunch, a salumeria will build a panino to order from whatever is behind the counter.

Kiosks all over the centre sell coffee and two local refreshments: seltz al limone, soda water with fresh lemon juice, and mandarino al limone, the same with tangerine syrup added. On a hot afternoon, stop at one and drink standing up, as everyone else does.

Sant'Agata's silver reliquary, 3 to 5 February

Catania's patron saint is honoured from 3 to 5 February in one of the largest religious festivals in Italy, drawing up to 700,000 people. Devotees in white robes pull the silver reliquary of Sant'Agata through the city, led by eleven candelore, huge carved candles carried by the old guilds.

Agatha was a young Christian woman from Catania martyred in the 3rd century, and the city credits her veil with stopping lava flows from Etna. The festival follows a fixed order. On 3 February the procession of the offering of wax brings the city authorities and two 18th-century carriages through the streets, and fireworks light up Piazza del Duomo in the evening.

On 4 and 5 February the reliquary bust and casket leave the cathedral on a heavy silver float, pulled by ropes held by thousands of devotees in white tunics called sacchi. The first day covers the outer route, the second climbs Via Etnea and ends with the steep run up Via San Giuliano, which the crowd takes at speed. The procession usually returns to the cathedral in the morning hours of 6 February.

Hotels fill early, and the streets around the route are packed day and night, so book well ahead. The city has applied for UNESCO intangible heritage status for the festival, and the Ministry of Culture is due to decide by 30 March 2027 whether to put it forward. Outside February, the small domed cassatelle di Sant'Agata sold in pastry shops all year keep the saint in view.

Lava stone, baroque fronts and two UNESCO listings

Central Catania is part of the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto, listed by UNESCO in 2002, and Mount Etna joined the list in 2013. You see both in the streets: church fronts in pale limestone set against paving and walls of dark lava stone.

After the 1693 earthquake, the city was rebuilt on a grid of wide streets and squares, partly to give people open space to escape to in the next disaster. Via Crociferi, lined with convents and church fronts, shows the result best, and Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, the architect who led much of the rebuilding, designed the cathedral front and the elephant fountain in Piazza del Duomo. Locals call the lava elephant u Liotru.

Etna supplied the building stone. Grey basalt from old lava flows paves the streets and trims the buildings, and the Ursino castle, built in the 13th century on the coast, now stands inland because the 1669 lava flow pushed the shoreline out. The castle houses the civic museum.

The Benedictine Monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena, now part of the university, is one of the largest in Europe, and guided tours take you through its cloisters and the Roman house remains found under it.

The cathedral of Sant'Agata keeps the saint's relics in a chapel behind locked doors, opened to the public only on a few feast days. Vincenzo Bellini, the composer born in Catania in 1801, is buried inside near the entrance, and the opera house that bears his name, the Teatro Massimo Bellini, opened in 1890. The Bellini Gardens on Via Etnea, the city's main park, are named after him too.

For Etna itself, the usual base on the southern side is Rifugio Sapienza, at about 1,900 metres, reached by car or by the AST bus that leaves Catania early each morning and returns in the afternoon. From there a cable car climbs to about 2,500 metres, and off-road vehicles go higher. The summit craters are open only with authorised guides, and access changes with the volcano's activity, so check the current rules with the Etna park or a licensed guide before you go. Even in summer it is cold and windy near the top, so take a warm layer and proper shoes.