Due to the Alitalia bankruptcy and changes in scheduled flights, we will be staying in Catania at the end of our Rick Steves Sicily tour in April of 2022 for two extra days. Would love suggestions on sites, activities, etc. for those two days.
Posted by
Paris
9592 posts
I would look for the Stanley Tucci episode from Sicily from his CNN series . . . he visited at least one and maybe two restaurants in Catania that sounded fantastic!
Posted by
11161 posts
Check out the town of Acireale north of Catania as a place to spend a few days.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6563 posts
Below are the places we visited in Catania when we were there in 2018.
Catania - grand Piazza del Duomo & fish market
Piazza Carlo Alberto di Savoia - flea market (not on sunday)
Cathedral de Sant'Agata
Archeological complex, Terme della Rotonda
Anfiteatro romano
Roman theater
Piazza Federico de Svevia by Ursino castle
Paticceria Savia, 302/304, Via Etnea
The city itself doesn’t really have any must see sights but is good for wandering around. Hopefully by next April things will be back to normal after last week’s flooding of much of the city.
Posted by
Washington DC
27142 posts
The WWII museum is said to be good.
To my mind one of the major omissions of the tour is the group of Baroque towns in the southeast section of the island. Ragusa, Modica, Noto and Scicli are among them. I wouldn't want to day-trip there from Catania because you'd spend all your time traveling. It would be better to spend a night or two in the area; I'd probably choose Ragusa as my base. There is some train service as well as bus service in this area; I approached the area from Siracusa rather than from Catania. Neither trains nor buses are really frequent, and buses in particular are unlikely to be available on Sunday.
Catania has decent public-transportation links into the interior. I believe the tour stops at the Villa Romana del Casale outside Piazza Armerina. I don't know whether there is any sort of stop in that town. If not, it would be worth some wandering-around time, as are Enna and Caltagirone. Check those places out online or in a comprehensive guidebook. Rick makes a passing reference to Piazza Armerina in his guide to Sicily; I don't believe he covers the others.
Posted by
WA State
3961 posts
In addition to the great recommendations up thread, we were going back to Catania last year but cancelled due to lockdown. That said we were also going to spend 3 nights in lovely Acireale. See Priscilla’s trip report. We were going to follow her itinerary. The B&B host was so gracious when we canceled. If we return we would definitely rebook. I think Acireale lends itself to a quiet place after a busy tour. San Sebastiano holidays. Edited to add:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/acireale-toarmina-and-back-to-milan