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Catania & the Coast of Cyclopes |
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| Meeting at the pier with your English speaking guide and get on board the comfortable bus for the tour of Catania. This is a really splendid Baroque city and provincial capital which is situated on an extensive plain of citrus groves on the Ionian sea at the foot of mount Etna. The city is a busy industrial and commercial centre, and boasts an old university. With its 500,000 inhabitants, Catania is the second city of Sicily. Leaving the bus you will commence your walking tour through the main street, Via Etnea, the longest one in Europe, the commercial centre of Catania, with a lot of shops and boutiques. . The remarkable geographic location, with a setting that includes Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea, has played a major role in the thousands of years of history of this city. The growth of Catania has clearly been affected, for better or worse, by its relationship with the volcano: the volcano made the fields remarkably fertile and as the lava cooled it served as a quarry for the volcanic stone with which houses were built. You can appreciate the cathedral, built in the 1078 by the Count Ruggero. The main façade was built by an excellent architect, Vaccarini, following the Baroque style; Cathedral square, planned immediately following the earthquake of 1693 in the place of the medieval “platea magna” or main square where at the middle you can admire the fountain of the elephant, the symbol of the town. You can decide to make a short shopping along via Etnea before driving along the coast and passing through typical Sicilian villages as Aci Castello, which grew up around a Norman fortress, Aci Trezza, village with maritime tradition, immortalized in the novel “I malavoglia” by a famour Sicilian writer, Giovanni Verga. Across the water rise up the rock stacks, or Faraglioni dei Ciclopi, great shoals of basalt rock.
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ETNA SCENIC DRIVE |
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| Once you have taken your seat in one of our deluxe air-conditioned comfortable motor-coaches you will be driven across the centre of Catania and in a few minutes you reach the freeway to Messina, running along the coastline, allowing you to admire the coast, the hills, the fields, the villages. The bus will leave the freeway in Giarre and from there will start motoring up the slopes of the volcano Etna, the largest volcano in Europe, 3.300 metres high (abt 10000 feet)
You will be driven across small villages ,such as Santa Venerina and Zafferana, and among the fertile fields on the side of the mountain : vineyards, orchards , chestnuts , hazelnuts are covering the mountain. You will see the remnants of the past eruptions, you will be motoring along the road cutting among streams of solidified lava, a black wild petrified river coming from the top of the mountain. You shall then reach 1900 metres above the sea level and visit the Silvestri spent craters, you will be able to walk along the brim of these craters and imagine how was with the hot lava boiling in the bottom of this gigantic cauldron. After a short time for souvenirs or other drive back to the ship.
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WALKING TOUR OF CATANIA |
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| A pleasant sightseeing & walking tour of Catania, discovering its splendid baroque buildings and the remnants of Roman colonization. Situated on an extensive plain of Citrus groves on the Ionian Sea at the foot of Mount Etna. With its 450,000 inhabitants, Catania is the second city of Sicily and it is a busy industrial & commercial centre. During the walking tour you will pass through Uzeda Gate arriving at Cathedral square, planned immediately after the earthquake of 1693 in the same place of Medieval "Platea Magna". All buildings surrounding the square are designed by the famous archaçade.The tour will lead you in the hearth of Catania., the main highlights : Colleguiata, Via Crociferi, University, City Hall, Bellini Opera House, etc .After this walk there will be some free time at leisure.
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