Are you planning a trip to Sicily? Not sure if you want to start in Catania or Palermo?
We started our trip around Sicily in Catania, and we were very surprised by the number of things there are to see. Catania gave us a very good impression as a whole, we would recommend the town and will certainly return.
We were on our second day in the city, and I had already published the Catania – Day 1 post. Check out the previous post and don’t forget to subscribe to the site, so you can follow the full trip to Sicily.
Below is a map showing the places we visited on our second day in Catania:
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We started our second day by having breakfast at Nuts Café just down the road from our B&B. They have various options for coffee, pastries and breads. So, we had a nice start to the day in their café.
We were travelling independently with a hired car we booked via Discover Cars, we are very confident travellers and speak a bit of the language. However, you prefer to be part of a tour that will take care of all your accommodation, tours, meals, and transport, you should check the tours available at Tourradar.
They have one that covers Palermo, Catania, Monreale, Cefalú, Catania, Mount Etna and Taormina. This tour can be booked HERE. If you book it via my link you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
The plan today was to go to the airport first thing, where we were going to collect our hired car which we booked via Discover Cars. With the car, we were planning to drive to Refugio Sapienza and go up Mount Etna.
After visiting Mount Etna, we would return to Catania and visit a few other places that we didn’t have time to visit the day before.
We decided that we should go to the airport by taking the Alibus on the Via Vittorio Emanuele II bus stop near the corner with Via Landolina. The Alibus runs every 25 minutes and takes between 15 and 20 minutes to the airport. It costs only 4 Euros per person and tickets can be bought on board, from the driver.
The bus must have passed just before we arrived at the stop, because we waited for a good half an hour. When it arrived, it was quite full, but we still managed to get a seat. It took about 20 minutes to get there on that day.
When we arrived at the car hire desk, there was no one in front of us, and we were served immediately. It didn’t take much longer, and we were driving out of the airport in the direction of Mount Etna.
The drive to Refugio Sapienza is about an hour, and we didn’t get much traffic on the way. Traffic in Catania was very easy going and nothing stressful, as you might imagine it would be.
VISITING CATANIA – DAY 2
We booked tickets to go up to Mount Etna with the cable car in advance, and the tickets were valid throughout the day.
You can also book the cable car tickets in advance via this LINK.
You can also book a tour of Mount Etna that includes the cable car and the truck ticket. You can book this tour HERE.
If you are based in Catania and do not have a car, there are tours from Catania that will take you to Refugio Sapienza.
This tour will pick you up in Catania, will take you to Refugio Sapienza, but the tickets to the cable car and truck are not included. They will take you back to Catania when finished. Book this one HERE.
When we arrived, we went straight to the cable car and got to the first stage of the trip, which is halfway to the volcano. From there, you have the choice to look at the volcano from there or to take a tour on a truck with a guide that will take you to the top and near the craters.
We opted to take the truck and experience the whole thing. That was very worth doing. We loved to walk on the volcanic surface and to listen to the guide’s explanations.
Mount Etna had erupted only two days before we were there, and we were lucky the tours had just restarted, because when the Etna erupts, the tours are suspended.
Let me tell you a little bit about Mount Etna:
1 – Mount Etna
Mount Etna, rising to about 3,329 meters, dominates eastern Sicily and defines Catania’s geography, economy, and identity. It is Europe’s highest and most active volcano, in near-continuous eruption for millennia.
Its activity, alternating explosive and effusive phases, has repeatedly destroyed and renewed the surrounding landscape, most famously burying parts of Catania in 1669.
Etna’s fertile volcanic soils sustain vineyards, orchards, and pistachio groves, creating a rich agricultural belt. The mountain’s slopes host ancient lava fields, forests, and snowfields, protected within the Parco dell’Etna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013 for its exceptional geological and scientific value.
Mount Etna is a stratovolcano formed by successive layers of lava and ash over roughly 500,000 years, positioned along the collision zone between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates.
Its eruptive behaviour is unusually varied, ranging from summit crater explosions to flank fissure eruptions, which can generate long lava flows reaching inhabited areas.
Its 1669 eruption, the largest in recorded history, buried villages and reached the walls of Catania, altering the coastline. More recent eruptions, such as those in 1992, 2001, and 2021, have been closely monitored, making Etna a natural laboratory for volcanology and planetary science.
We loved our visit to the volcano. It was a very enriching experience that everybody who visits Catania should do it at least once. When the tour finished, we stopped at the café on the first level and had a light lunch there.
We sat outside but had to move inside because the place was invaded by ladybirds that were sitting on your arms, legs, head and everywhere. While we were walking around, we noticed a lot of Ladybirds, that kept flying and landing on our body but we didn’t think they would go as far as the café terrace.
We like ladybirds, but not when they become so invasive, especially when you are trying to have lunch.
After lunch, we took the cable car back to the ground and visited their shop on site. In the shop, I bought some lovely jewellery to give as a present to my Mum and my daughter, with some extra for me.
They were bracelets made with the lava stones of the volcano. Very unusual and attractive. I also bought some delicious limoncello and flavoured liquors as presents as well. They were all in 100mm bottles, so easy to carry in hand luggage.
We next drove back to Catania, and when we arrived, the first thing was to find a space to park the car until the following day, when we would check out and leave Catania.
There was a car park almost in front of Nuts Café, on Pizza Manganelli, and we were lucky to find a space there. We parked there and didn’t move the car until the next day.
The car park was near Via Etnea, a pedestrianised road which is full of shops and attractions. We turned left from Via Antonino di Sangiuliano on Via Etnea.
2 – Via Etnea
Via Etnea is Catania’s main artery and visual axis, running straight from Piazza del Duomo to the slopes of Mount Etna, whose peak closes the vista. Laid out after the 1693 earthquake as part of the city’s rational Baroque reconstruction, it became both Catania’s commercial core and its symbolic statement of order.
The street is lined with uniform lava-stone façades, arcades, and squares. Piazza Università, Piazza Stesicoro, and Villa Bellini, forms a sequence of open spaces and perspectives rare in Sicilian urbanism.
Key landmarks include the Palazzo dell’Università, Collegiata Church, and 19th-century cafés that remain intellectual meeting points.
Today, Via Etnea is pedestrian-friendly, hosting parades, markets, and religious processions during the Festival of Sant’Agata. It condenses Catania’s essence: Baroque elegance, volcanic materiality, and a constant dialogue between human design and natural power.
We walked along the road and passed in front of “Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo ai Minoriti”.
A little further on Via Minoritti and Via Montesanto there was a street fair with many stalls selling souvenirs of Catania and handmade articles. We stopped to look at this fair and after parting with some more money, buying more jewellery, I was happy to continue.
We went all the way to “Piazza Stisicoro” which is a very busy and lively square. That is where the ruins of the “Anfiteatro Romano di Catania” are.
3 – Piazza Stisicoro
Piazza Stesicoro is one of Catania’s central squares and a key node along Via Etnea, embodying the city’s Baroque and modern layers in a single open space. Its name honors the Greek poet Stesichorus, said to have lived nearby in ancient Katane.
At its centre stands the Monument to Vincenzo Bellini (1882), Catania’s most famous native composer, surrounded by allegorical figures representing his operas.
Beneath the square lie the Roman Amphitheatre of Catania, partially excavated and visible from the street—a direct encounter between ancient and modern urban fabric.
The piazza is flanked by Neoclassical and Baroque palazzi, linking the city’s commercial heart with its archaeological core. It functions as a hinge between the rational grid of post 1693 reconstruction and the deeper, buried strata of Greek and Roman Catania.
We continued on Via Etnea, passing the impressive building of the “Poste Italiane” (Italian Post Office).
Next to the “Poste Italiane” building is “Villa Bellini”, a quiet garden in the middle of Catania with luscious plants, benches and shaded paths.
There is a very interesting tour that I would have taken if I had more time in Catania. It is a tour of the underground, discovering what lies beneath the city of Catania and a tour of the centre that includes Via Etnea and its aristocrats palaces. Book this one HERE.
4 – Villa Bellini
“Villa Bellini”, officially the “Giardino Bellini” or “Villa Comunale”, is Catania’s oldest and most elegant public park, located along Via Etnea. Originally an 18th-century private garden of the Biscari family, it was transformed into a public space in the 19th century and dedicated to composer Vincenzo Bellini, the city’s cultural icon.
The park’s design blends Romantic and Neoclassical elements, terraced walkways, ornate fountains, and formal flowerbeds arranged to form dates and patterns visible from above. From its central terrace, visitors overlook Mount Etna and the city’s Baroque skyline, a rare visual harmony between nature and urban geometry.
Historically, Villa Bellini was both a civic promenade and a symbol of Catania’s modernisation after the Bourbon period. It is a stage for concerts, festivals, and intellectual life. Today, it remains the city’s main green refuge and a daily meeting point for locals, linking Catania’s volcanic vitality with cultivated serenity.
We entered the garden and found it to have a very pretty landscape. There was a gorgeous staircase, marble statues, and a Music Kiosk, all very attractive. Villa Bellini Garden turns into “Parco Maestranze”, (Maestranze Park), which expands to a much larger area.
After strolling through the paths, we relaxed a little bit on one of the benches, taking in all the beauty of this peaceful place. Our visit only went up to the Music Kiosk and, after many photos of the gorgeous garden, we made our way back on Via Etnea to our B&B.
We had a restaurant booked for that evening. We chose to have dinner at “Trattoria “U Fucularu” on Via Euplio Reina, a 5-minute walk from our B&B. There were other restaurants on this road, and it seemed to be a very popular area for tourists, near Piazza Università.
The dinner was lovely at this restaurant. We ordered some stuffed sardines and an orange and fennel salad that were divine.
I thought it was a good place to try the” Pasta alla Norma”, which is pasta with aubergines in a tomato sauce. I liked the dish, but I like my pasta a bit soft, and this one was quite hard to my taste.
My husband ordered the swordfish and said it was delicious.
However, it was a good meal, and apart from the pasta that was too hard for me, everything else was delicious. The service was also very good, and we had some entertainment from some musicians who go around restaurants and play some songs outside these restaurants.
You can join a food walking tour in Catania and have a culinary adventure with Catania’s vibrant food. Book this tour HERE.
This was the end of our visit to Catania. After dinner, we walked back to our B&B and went to bed, looking forward to the next day when we would be travelling to our next stop on this trip, Taormina. Read all about it in my next post.
I hope this post will give you some idea of what can be done in a day in Catania and will help you plan your own visit there.
Don’t forget to check the tours of Sicily and other places available at Tourradar, I’m sure you will find the perfect tour that will fit your requirements and budget. If you book it via my link you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR VISIT TO CATANIA
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat around Catania. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
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£ – Cheap
PLEASE NOTE: Every hotel, restaurants and attractions I mention on my blogs are not sponsored reviews and we always paid the full price when visiting. We give our own opinion of the place and detail our experience, good or bad.
THINGS TO DO IN CATANIA – DAY 2
ATTRACTIONS
1 – Mount Etna – ***
2 – Via Etnea – ***
3 – Piazza Stisicoro – ***
4 – Villa Bellini – ***
WHERE TO STAY
ACCOMMODATION
1 – Opera Boutique – 3* – ££ – *** – (We stayed here)
2 – B&B Cinquequinte – 3* – ££
3 – Dome – 4* – £££
4 – Asmundo di Gisira – 4* – £££
5 – Palazzo Sangiorgio – 5* – £££
6 – Roby’s Boutique Rooms – 4* – £££
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation, search and book via the below widget:
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BEST PLACES TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 –Trattoria “U” Fucularu – ££ – *** – (We ate here)
2 – Bistro Uzeta – ££
3 – Il Gambero Pazzo – ££
4 – Puti – ££
5 – Ristorante Vice 5 – ££
6 – Cu a Voli Cotta & Cu A Voli Crura – ££
We only tried the ones in bold , the others are the result of my researches and ones that I would like to try. If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like to read:
On this trip to Italy:
1 – Catania – Day 1
2 – Catania – Day 2
3 – Taormina
4 – Cefalú
5 – Palermo – Day 1
6 – Palermo – Day 2
8 – Punta Secca
9 – Ragusa – Day 1
10 – Ragusa – Day 2
11 – Modica
12 – Noto
13 – Siracusa – Day 1
14 – Siracusa – Day 2 – Coming soon
15 – Catania and Conclusion – Day – 3 – Coming soon
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