07-Jan-2025
We arrived in Catania on Sunday. There was no time for station pictures then, so let's just put that right before we go any further:
The 19th-century station building
Right by the station there's this massive complex featuring the mythical abduction of Proserpina by Pluto
Yesterday was Epiphany, a public holiday in Italy. There were loads of people circulating in the streets; we came across a group dressed to represent La Befana (the witch-like old woman who traditionally gives presents to children on this day); and there were bands and performances, which we mostly avoided.
Today, everyone was back at work, so the vibe was more everyday. A massive market, occupying an extensive complex of streets around the Piazza Carlo Alberto di Savoia, was running at full bore both days.
The church that overlooks the market
Like Palermo, Catania is a city that's seen a fair bit of action.
Its founders were the Greeks, in the 8th century BCE. The Romans conquered the city in 263 BCE, and there's still a fair amount visible from that era:
The fountain is 18th century, but the elephant probably dates back to Roman times
After the Romans, there followed a procession of Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans; Hohenstaufens, Aragonese, and Bourbons.
What makes this city very different from Palermo, however, is the presence of a girt big volcano immediately to the north... Mount Etna, at 3,320 metres, is the highest active volcano in Europe, and from 1500 BCE, there are records of 71 eruptions.
Views of Etna
And where there are volcanoes, there are likely to be earthquakes... The one in 1169 razed the city, and killed more than 15,000 people.
Another earthquake blasted the place in 1693. And the massive wave of rebuilding that followed on from that disaster is the reason that Catania is ram-jam full of Sicilian Baroque architecture.
If you want to reach for one word to sum up this style, it would be "exuberant"... I'm no expert, and I may be mischaracterizing some of the buildings below, but to me they all come in the category of gloriously, rambunctiously OTT:
There's really never a dull moment while you're walking the streets of Catania...
On the subject of which, the last couple of days' walking have been slightly curtailed by the recurrence of a foot complaint Nigel first experienced a couple of years ago. It's fixable, if you paint on a foul-smelling solution twice a day, but it's not a quick fix, and in the interim, it's painful, so careful bandaging with expensive plasters is required.
Still, what counts is not quantity but quality, and there's no shortage of that.
The little square near our house