Catania – Ruins, Escher & Fish

I woke feeling sad and sooky – call it the Birthday Blues, I don’t know but if I could have magic’d myself home would have done it in a flash. However birthday wishes from Sam and then Kirstin brightened my day and we meandered off to breakfast, something, we were to discover, not to be missed. They certainly take the “breakfast” part of B&B very seriously here as there was soooo much lovely food.
Once we had eaten, we ventured out into the city. Catania is both old and young – old in that there is evidence of Greek settlement 100’s of years BC but young in that most of the city was destroyed following an earthquake in the late 1600’s. We visited many of the significant sites of the city, several churches as well as the Roman Theatre – the latter was a fascinating archaeological site - originally constructed by the Greeks in approx. 730BC, it was subsequently rebuilt and then modified by the Romans in the 1st through 4th Centuries AD before being abandoned around the 5th or 6th Century. It was completely built over in the 11th and 13th Centuries but rediscovered after the 1693 earthquake – excavations followed intermittently from the late 18th Century and have been steadily ongoing since the 1960’s. The site is now used frequently for live performances and was really quite amazingly intact, although it was much smaller than the theatre we saw at Verona (9 sections with a capacity of about 12,000) and was only used for theatre rather than Gladiatorial activities. We also visited the Castle Ursino – this was originally a fortress and strategic military position built between 1239 and 1250. When it was built it was on the edge of the sea, however during an eruption of Mt Etna in the mid 1600’s the moat filled with lava and the shoreline shifted such that the castle is now more than a kilometre inland, it is also one of the few buildings to have survived the 1693 earthquake which caused more than 60,000 deaths (about 2/3 of the population of Catania at the time). We didn’t go into the castle as we were a bit over looking at old things but had a wander around outside admiring the lava flow that surrounded it.
We moved on to the Duomo (Cathedral of St Agata) where the local Indian community was celebrating what appeared to be a first communion – it was vibrant and noisy and the Cathedral was thronging with people posing in family groups to take celebratory photos. The Cathedral itself is massive and certainly the largest of the many many churches (there seems to be at least 2 on every corner!) in Catania. Originally built between 1078 and 1093 the structure was battered by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of Mount Etna several times and had to be rebuilt. The original cathedral was then totally destroyed in 1693 and is an interesting mix of Norman and Baroque architecture. Most of the churches we visited were similarly decorated ornate but less over the top than those we had seen in other cities – they reminded me of an old-fashioned wedding cake or as Kirstin suggested Wedgewood plates – gold scroll work, cream plaster, cream and pale pink marble and soft hued ceiling frescos.
It was a lovely warm to hot morning but with a pleasant breeze. We wandered past fountains and an open air market until about 1pm when we called in at a café called Prestepino which had been recommended as serving tasty snacks aimed at locals rather than tourists. I enjoyed a birthday been and a pistachio cannoli.
While exploring the previous afternoon we had noticed that there was a MC Escher (the Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints) exhibition at Plazzo della Cultura (about 3 minutes’ walk from where we are staying. It was only 12euro to visit and we spent about 2 hours enjoying the pieces – really a fantastic exhibition with over a hundred works, a free audio guide and even some interactive stations – just great. With full brains we headed back to the B&B to fill our stomachs with left over pizza and calzone.
With a such a lovely afternoon and several hours to spare we decided to head down to “free beach number one”, that really is the name of the beach, it isn’t far from “free beach number two” and, you guessed it… “free beach number three”. It was about a 2.2km walk but the google maps directions made for some hairy road crossings as the Italian ideas about what constitutes a safe foot path are well…interesting to say the least! We arrived to find a fairly grubby beach but still it was nice to sit on the sand in the sun for an hour and I even went for a quick dip before we headed back to the B&B for a shower and change.
Federico (one of the B&B staff had recommended Corte dei Biscari as a local fish restaurant for good (non tourist) food, seeing as he had been spot on with Locanda Cerami where we ate last night and Prestipino (mmmm that cannoli) we decided this would be a good place for my birthday tea (I only wish we had been hungrier!!) It was lovely, the service was fantastic and it was 50euro for the best meal that I have eaten in Italy so far. There was eggplant and zucchini bruschetta to start (complimentary, along with the fizzy mineral water and a HUGE basket of delicious bread and grissini), we then chose swordfish croquettes (me) and tuna with black and white sesame, almonds and a type of marmalade (for Kirstin) plus a huge plate of delicious grilled veggies AND Wine (plus I got a free glass of prosecco because it was my birthday! There was also a visit by the restaurant cat - they were amazed when I said I really liked the cat, but that it wouldn’t be allowed in Australia!
After all that food I needed a walk and went for a stroll up into the centre of town – the place was absolutely humming 930 at night and people just seemed to be getting going, streets clogged, restaurants packed, cars going everywhere! Amazing … but apparently that’s Sicily for you.Read more