We flew into Catania recently and rented a car. The rental building is across the street, open air, hot, busy and as we found out with pickpockets working hard. My 2 young teenage boys told us once we were in the car that while my wife and i were at the counter (it takes a long time - 30 minutes just to complete a rental due to old systems) they watched an older gentleman pickpocket many people. They didn't say anything out of fear and since we weren't good targets - with money belts, Pacsafe packs and no wallets etc. he left us alone. So if you rent at the Catania airport be very careful while in this small "hut-like" rental building. The young Avis agent we had was very nice, spoke good English but the process was slow and our reservation not completely clear although we got it ironed out. Also all of the companies have small counters there and several had very unpleasant employees - we witnessed a few yelling at each other and customers. My advice - stick with the big names for this location.
Posted by
Lakeland, Florida, USA
93 posts
Hmmm... there are TWO buildings at the Catania car rental- one that seems to be somewhat dome shaped (and always seemed to be filled with people) and then another, which is more rectangular in shape and was always almost empty when I was there (several times). They are almost side-by-side. We never entered the more dome-looking building; we only dealt with the people in the other one.
I do agree that the paperwork seemed to take an unusually long time. The people we dealt with were very friendly and helpful... they just had a lot to fill out and their computer system seemed to take a long time to display information.
Also...
It took me a while to get used to the Sicilian norms of communication- my early gut feeling was that everyone in the country was angry about something and yelling at each other about it (I wondered if something had happened at the national level and we hadn't heard about it). After observing for a couple of weeks, however- I realized that was the cultural norm for communicating and that I was experiencing cultural differences. My boss and colleagues confirmed this. The employees may not have been unpleasant- just behaving according to the standards of their culture.
Posted by
OP
Alpharetta
11 posts
it was the building with the Avis counter in it. We have Sicilian relatives and were visiting them while there so I understand what you mean by the cultural difference. I grew up in the states but this difference was the way we communicated at home. It often perplexed my visiting friends :-) Unfortunately these folks were just plain angry as the Avis agent even commented that they are not nice people. But you can find much of the same in many US cities - right?
Posted by
Lakeland, Florida, USA
93 posts
That must have been the other building. I know the one we were in (one of the areas was for Hollywood rental) wasn't that way at all and the people all were friendly.
I only encountered a couple of not-so-nice Sicilians during the 5 weeks we were there- and one of them was the owner of a gas station (on a main highway) who deliberately tried to short-change me. I don't think he realized "an American" could get so loud and mean that fast!!
I made a lot of friends while I was there.