Today we used the morning to shift about 120 kilometers to Catania. Catania is the 2nd largest city in Sicily, but is the economic hub of the island. It was founded by the Greeks around the 8th century BC, but like much of Sicily it has had many rulers. We are going to be using it for a base for the next few days while we visit the surrounding region.
It is famous for a fountain with a black elephant on it. The Black Elephant was carved in Roman times from a single block of lava from Mt. Etna. It has been placed in its current location in the mid 1700’s as part of a fountain in front of the cathedral. Having an elephant as a prominent landmark already stood Catania in Tons good graces.
Catania has a reputation of being a little rough around the edges and some of reading on the internet talked about buildings being covered with graffiti and the streets being dirty. So we were surprised that in the areas we walked around and we saw from the bus ride there was very little graffiti and the streets were fairly clean.
Our first impression was of a prosperous and vigorous city with a real positive vibe. We enjoyed walking around and looking at the crowds out seeing the sites on a Saturday. The people were mostly Italian, with a healthy mix of foreign tourists mixed in.
We messed up a little by having a late light lunch before we left François, so we were not hungry when we arrived downtown. By the time we were hungry lunch was over and most of the restaurants were closing down. The restaurants generally close from about 3pm to 7 pm, there were a few places still open but none of them appealed to us.
Since we couldn’t eat, we decided to go look at an area that is devoted mostly to religious institutions and is considered to be one of the most beautiful streets in Catania. Via Crociferi includes the second largest monastery in Europe, and several churches. It was pretty quiet compared to the area around the cathedral. But the buildings were beautiful, and we enjoyed the walk. Someone has done a good job of putting explanations about the buildings in both Italian and English so we took our time reading the histories of the various buildings as we strolled along.
At this point we decided to head back to the campground. It was around 4:30 when I told google maps to get us back home. We walked to the bus stop guided by maps, and there were a group of Italians waiting there. There was a sign that told you when your bus was going to arrive. One of the options google gave us was due to arrive in 17 minutes. It counted down to 7 minutes and then the time to arrival went blank. After a while we noticed a bunch of googling going on among the Italians and after some discussion among themselves the crowd at the bus stop began to disperse. We were kind of confused. Finally, a gentleman from the crowd came over and spoke a burst of Italian into his phone and held it out to me. In English it said that this bus stop was not served after 5pm and we need to move to another bus stop on a different road. He asked where we going and when I told him he said that was the same bus he was taking. He then proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes with us walking to the next bus stop, getting on one bus, and then transferring to our final bus. The whole time he was going out of his way to help us he was apologizing because he an Italian in Italy could not speak English. I told him that since this was Italy, it was our fault for not speaking Italian, but he waived his hand dismissively at this thought.
Once again Italian busses confounded us with there mysterious schedules, but also, once again Italians came to the rescue to make sure we were not left in a lurch. This willingness to help strangers is one of the things that has really struck both Ton and me about traveling in Italy, it is really special.
Catania is a beautiful city with a very lively center that we both enjoyed a great deal. Our only regret is we mis-timed our meals so we did not experience the local food. But, we have many days to make up for that mistake.