An Afternoon in Catania, Sicily

 June 27, 2023 – Catania, Sicily, Italy

Docked: 12:30PM to 7:30PM 

We were still sailing when we woke up this morning at 7 am.  Within a short time, we sailed through the narrow strip of water between Sicily and the “toe” of Italy’s boot.  Another 4+ hours of sailing brought us to the port of Catania, which is a relatively large city situated on the coast at the base of Mount Etna.  Located on the east coast of Sicily, Catania is situated at the foot of the largest volcano in Europe, Mount Etna. Although I attempted to get a transportation ticket for the Independent Exploration of Taormina excursion, they were sold out.  Therefore, we decided to do our own family walking tour of Catania.  

We went to the outdoor track on the 14^th deck FWD and walk it for three laps in the gorgeous Mediterranean weather.  That walk took us past the various hot tubs, the pool, and the outdoor gardens on the 15^th deck.  

The track covered the about half the length of the ship and wound around and over itself on the 14^th and 15^th decks.  Afterwards, we sat at the Magic Carpet bar (Magic Carpet is suspended on the right side of the ship and moves to a different deck each day) and visited and watched as we sailed the Sicilian shoreline.  

The ship arrived at Catania port and people could disembark at 1 pm.  

We went ashore at 1:15 pm 

and began walking toward the Piazza del Duomo (a prominent site on the skyline) which is located on a large piazza.  Catania is rich with baroque architecture and the Duomo and buildings around the piazza were good examples of this.  

Located in the center of the piazza is the city’s symbolic Fountain of the Elephant.  This was constructed in 1736 from lava and contains an ancient Egyptian obelisk on the back of the elephant.  The fountain is currently under construction and is wrapped in protective netting.  A replica can be seen in a courtyard of the main municipal building.  

We next walked to the Ursino Castle (also known as the black lava castle) built between 1239 and 1250. Frederick II ordered the Ursino Castle built for defensive purposes for the kingdom of Sicily on a promontory into the sea on this location along the East coast of Sicily.   Due to the eruption of Mount Etna in 1669, 

the lava flowed towards the sea along the south side of the castle and wrapped it from the west and east side with two streams of magma, that filled up the ditches and reduced the “apparent” height of the castle.  The lava had a front of about 800-900 meters that spilled into the sea to create a new strip of land.  From that time forward, the Ursino Castle was no longer overlooking the sea.  In fact, the Castle is now about a km from the water.  After the move of the capital away from Catania and the appearance of powder weapons, the castle lost its military role and was used as a prison.  The city of Catania acquired the castle in 1932 and restored it.  Today it is a museum that houses artifacts and artwork from the castle as well as the greater geographical area.  The items date from the Classical era onward, representing the many diverse influences on Sicilian history.  It also hosts temporary exhibits as it does currently.  

The castle has a rectangular plan, with a large circular tower at each corner, smaller circular towers in the center of each wall, and an open-air inner court.  We purchased tickets to tour the castle and view the artifacts and artwork being exhibited.  

It was a most interesting self-guided tour that covered 3 floors of the castle.  The ground floor contained Grecian pottery, sculptures, and figurines unearthed in the countryside and funerary artifacts from Christian and Jewish graves.  A very interesting part of the tour was the prisoner graffiti on the door frame of the open-air court.  Some were poems and various comments about prison life and then there were numerous drawings – ships and fortifications.  

The exterior walls of the castle were decorated with horizontal lines created with small stones that enwrapped the building.  On the righthand corner tower on the entrance side, there were side-by-side Christian (cross enclosed within a circle) and Jewish (menorah) symbols created with the small stones.

Cross and Menorah

After the castle tour, we started our return walk to the ship 

with a brief detour to a gelato shop – Don Peppinu – where we all enjoyed some delicious gelato, that tasted great on a warm sunny day.  

We returned to the ship by 4:45 pm 

to relax before our 6:30 dinner at Eden.

Eden is a specialty restaurant on the AFT end of the 5^th deck.  We had a window seat for great views of Catania, the disembarkation, and a gorgeous sunset.  

Sean had a specialty drink that came in a sea chest:

Our dinner was absolutely outstanding with each of us having our own starter and entrée and then a selection of starters and entrées for sharing.  Bev’s starter was a bouquet of garden greens with vidalia onion dressing 

and mine was a lump crab cake with creamy chipotle.  

Bev’s entrée was Atlantic salmon with apple, asparagus, croissant, pistachio, & jura wine jus 

and mine was free range lamb loin with Dijon herb rust, apple, turnips, salsify, croissant, & lamb roasting juices. 

The following are pictures of all this gourmet food we enjoyed.  

Risotto

Sheep's Milk Gnocchi

Carabinero Shrimp

Lobster

Bev and I had the Meyer Lemon tartlett for dessert:

It was way too much, but nothing remained uneaten.  Throughout dinner a solo guitarist performed.

The sunset was very beautiful:

Following dinner, we enjoyed a musical concert by Jo Rochell in the Celebrity Showtime Theatre.  Bev joined Emily, Sean, Olivia, and Gavin for a Wonder at Eden performance, while I retired. 

Today was a fabulous day with 7 miles of walking to do and see many things on the ship and in Catania, Sicily.  Tomorrow is a sailing day as we go to Istanbul with docking occurring on Thursday afternoon.