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Sicilia 2026Seven days on the Ionian coast
Day1Day 1 · Mon 17 Aug

Catania

Landing day — black lava stone, baroque façades and the loudest fish market in Italy

  • A Piscaria fish market
  • Palazzo Biscari
  • Teatro Romano
  • Via Etnea
The lava-stone elephant fountain in front of Catania cathedral, carrying an Egyptian obelisk
U Liotru — the elephant fountain in Piazza del DuomoPhyrexian · CC BY-SA 4.0

We land at 10:35 and cannot get into the flat until 15:00, so the city gets the whole day. Catania is built out of the basalt that Etna threw at it and the pale limestone it rebuilt itself with after 1693 — the entire centre is that black-and-white contrast. Straight in from the airport for the tail end of the fish market, lunch booked in the middle of it, then out to Aci Trezza to drop the bags before coming back for the afternoon.

What it looks like

The route

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10 stops, by car

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The day, hour by hour

  1. 10:35

    Land at Catania Fontanarossa

    Aeroporto di Catania (CTA)

    Fontanarossa sits right on the edge of the city. Bags, then the shuttle across to the rental centre — reckon on being at the desk around 11:15.

    Pause40 min
    Map

    The car is booked from 10:00, so we are collecting it late rather than early. Worth knowing what the hold policy is before the day.

  2. 11:15

    Collect the car and drive into the city

    Airport → Catania centro

    Fifteen minutes up the coast road with the bags still in the boot. Park on the edge of the centre — the Borgo area or near Villa Bellini — and leave it there; the ZTL and the parking will both punish anyone who drives further in.

    Drive35 min

    Nothing visible left in the car. The suitcases stay until we can check in at 15:00.

  3. 11:50

    A Piscaria — the tail end of the fish market

    Via Pardo, behind the Duomo

    Catania’s theatrical heart: swordfish heads on marble slabs, sellers bellowing in dialect, water everywhere. It winds down around midday, so we are catching the last of it — which is its own kind of show, all hosing down and shouting about the price of what is left.

    Market25 minFree
    Map

    Wear shoes you do not mind getting wet. Good photographs from the little bridge above the market.

  4. 12:15

    Palazzo Biscari

    Via Museo Biscari 10

    The grandest private house in Catania and the best baroque interior in the city — five minutes from the market, past U Liotru, the lava-stone elephant carrying an Egyptian obelisk that is the symbol of the place. The Biscari princes built it into the old Spanish sea wall after 1693; the Salone delle Feste is a rococo octagon of mirrors, gilded stucco and frescoed ceiling, with a shell-shaped musicians’ gallery reached by a spiral stair. The British used it as an indoor tennis court in 1943.

    Sight40 min€10
    Map

    This is the fragile booking of the whole trip. Palazzo Biscari opens Monday to Saturday, 10:00–13:00 only, by appointment, in small groups — and Monday is the one day all week we are in Catania during those hours. Book the last slot they will give you, and if the flight or the rental desk runs late, let it go: everything else today slides, but this cannot.

  5. 13:00

    Lunch at Mm!!

    Via Pardo, inside the Pescheria

    Booked. Mm!! is on Via Pardo, which is to say it is in the fish market itself — you eat about ten metres from where the morning’s catch was being sold. First proper Sicilian meal of the trip, and the shortest possible walk from the stall to the plate.

    Food1 h 30
    Map

    We arrive straight off a flight with the luggage still in the car, so this is the moment to take our time rather than rush the afternoon. It is also the coolest place to be between one and three.

  6. 14:45

    Out to Aci Trezza — check in and drop the bags

    Via Livorno 13

    Check-in opens at 15:00 and it is twenty minutes up the coast. Bags in, a cold shower after the flight, a first look down the street at the water we will be swimming in all week — then straight back into the city while the worst of the heat burns off.

    Pause1 h 30
    Map

    If the flight has flattened everyone, this is the natural place to stop: the sea is right there, and Catania keeps until Sunday.

  7. 16:15

    Cattedrale di Sant’Agata

    Piazza del Duomo

    Back in the city, and the cathedral has reopened for the afternoon. It holds the relics of Sant’Agata, whom the city takes very seriously, and the tomb of Bellini, who was born a few streets away.

    Sight45 minFree
    Map

    Churches here shut roughly 12:00–16:00. Everything indoors has to happen either side of that.

  8. 17:00

    Teatro Romano e Odeon

    Via Vittorio Emanuele II 266

    A Roman theatre swallowed whole by the city — houses were built directly into the tiers, and you walk out of somebody’s courtyard into the cavea. Quietly the most surprising thing in Catania.

    Sight1 h€6
    Map
  9. 18:00

    Via Etnea at the passeggiata hour

    Piazza del Duomo → Piazza Stesicoro

    The main artery, three kilometres of it, driven dead straight through the ruins after 1693 and aimed squarely at the volcano that caused the trouble. Everyone in the city walks it at six. Halfway up, the Anfiteatro Romano sits sunk six metres below Piazza Stesicoro with the traffic going round it.

    Walk1 h
    Map

    Late afternoon the haze usually lifts. Look north along the street and Etna is at the end of it. The baroque set pieces off this street — the Collegiata, Piazza Università, the Benedictine monastery — are Sunday’s job, so walk past them tonight without stopping.

  10. 19:00

    Villa Bellini

    Via Etnea

    The city’s big public garden — ficus trees, a bandstand, and a terrace that frames the volcano. A civilised place to sit down after a day that started at an airport.

    Pause40 minFree
    Map
  11. 19:45

    Shop for supper

    A supermarket on the way back to the car

    Dinner is at the flat tonight, so this is the stop that makes it happen: bread, tomatoes, something to grill or a tray of arancini from the counter, fruit, coffee and milk for the morning. Italian supermarkets are good at exactly this kind of shop.

    Market35 min

    Most supermarkets here shut at 20:30, and the ones near the flat are no later — which is why this happens in the city rather than after the drive. If it slips, the alimentari and bakeries on Via Etnea stay open a little longer.

  12. 20:30

    Home to Aci Trezza — dinner at the flat

    Via Livorno 13

    Twenty minutes up the coast, and the first evening is spent in rather than out: supper on the terrace, the sea at the end of the street, and an early night after a day that started at an airport in Milan.

    Food
    Map

    Worth buying enough for breakfast too — granita in the village later in the week is the plan, but coffee at home first is better.