CATANIA

52km (32 miles) S of Taormina, 60km (37 miles) N of Syracuse.

Catania has a population of 380,000 and it is the second largest city in Sicily. It is sometimes referred to as the “city of black and white”. This is because of the white plaster and marble used in its buildings existing right alongside the black lava which is everywhere, and is also sometimes used in the construction. Catania lies in the shadow of Mount Etna. This fact does not prevent it from being an exciting and lively place, besides being the head office of a Bishop and having a great University.

The composer Vincenzo Bellini [1801 to 1835] was a native of Catania and the city has one of Italy's grandest opera houses, where you can hear his operas and eternal arias. Another son of this city who became famous was Giovanni Verga (1840-1922), acclaimed as Italy's greatest writer after Manzoni and known for his naturalistic fiction, he wrote such masterpieces as Vita dei Campi and Mastro Don Gesualdo.

The city was founded in729 BC and is on the the Laestrygonian Fields known in Book 10 of the Odyssey as the home of the cannibalistic Laestrygones. There are a couple of tragic incidents in its history. In 403 B.C., Dionysius of Syracuse sold off its citizens into slavery and in 253 B.C Its patron saint, Agatha, had her breasts severed. That was the penalty she suffered for turning down the advances of the Roman praetor, Quintianus. 

Modern day Catania is a city of wide streets, and strong, beautiful buildings. Battista Vaccarini, [11702 to 1768], was the architect who designed the new city, and he wanted to turn it into “a city of the baroque”. Many famous artists were commissioned, including Alonzo di Benedetto, Antonino and Francesco Battaglia, Giovanni Vaccarini, and Stefano Ittar. Fragments of solidified black lava were used widely. This lava, and the way it was positioned into the masonry, gave added strength to the walls of various buildings. Unfortunately the bombing of the city in 1943 destroyed many of these buildings and monuments. This, plus the dirt and neglect have resulted in the city now competing with Palermo for the title of “crime capital  of Sicily”.  There was an exodus, by the people of the city, to the suburbs as people left behind the stink of garbage and the despair of poverty and crime. 

Despite the crime and poverty, the economy of the city does not seem to be affected and its industries are doing quite well. The city still bustles with life and though some critics call it a “rotting urban carcass”, there is joy in its people, pleasure in its food, and spiritual fulfillment in its artistic treasures. The horrible puce coloured elephant in front of the Duomo, made from the lava of Etna, symbolizes the spirit of a city that was destroyed time and again, and still had the courage to bounce back from each disaster and even use the lava that destroyed it to create its own beautiful art.