Highlights of Catania, Catania, Italy

The second-largest city in Sicily was even less of a certainty on our itinerary than Palazzolo Acreide. It is part of the same Val di Noto World Heritage site as Ragusa, Noto, Scicli, and since a big city always requires a bigger allocation of time, we initially considered leaving it out altogether in favor of additional smaller destinations. Barely any grand-trip-around-Sicily list of recommendations calls Catania a must anyway.

But our plans are never immutable. A couple of adjustments for the sake of reducing driving distances both before and during the trip meant that we had a few hours to reallocate to visiting Catania on the day that we shifted our base from Noto to Taormina.

Of course, it is worth repeating that a big city always requires a bigger allocation of time. Driving in and out of the city center is an enhanced challenge in larger locales (order-of-magnitude enhanced in Sicily). Parking requires getting to and fro. Add in time for lunch – and all we had to spare for seeing Catania was maybe an hour and a half. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).