This is my guide to visiting Catania, Sicily. With the island’s main airport, many travelers start their trip to Sicily from Catania.

Catania was our first touch with Sicily. We landed there, took our first walk on the island, and passed by there almost every day, traveling somewhere. The city is located on the coast of the Ionian Sea and lives in constant connection (visual and functional) with the Etna volcano – powerful, unpredictable and beautiful in its own way. Black volcanic lava is everywhere – in the stones, in the streets, in the architecture. As the ancient Greek geographer and traveler Strabo noted, Catania’s proximity to Etna was both a test and a gift – the volcano destroyed the city several times in the past, but at the same time endowed the land with exceptional fertility.

Caltagirone was one of the places in Sicily that we decided to visit a bit on the go. There we climbed up to the popular Santa Maria del Monte staircase, connected to the city’s centuries-old livelihood – pottery production. We also tried the typical cannoli sweets of the region.

Randazzo (pronounced with the accent on the second “a”) is a quiet and peaceful town on the island of Sicily, located at the northern foot of the Etna volcano. It is located at 765 m above sea level in the valley of the Alcantara River and is a strategic crossroads between the provinces of Catania, Messina and Enna. In the past, the city has suffered damage and destruction several times as a result of earthquakes and lava flows. For the most part, the streets and buildings of the city are built of blocks of volcanic rock.

Messina was our first stop on the fifth day of our trip around Sicily. My first impression of the city was the port and a huge cruise ship docked there. I later read that Messina is a must-see destination for cruise ships carrying tourists around the Mediterranean. My second impression was how difficult it is to find parking spaces in the city center. The third thing was the hilly location of the city and the large difference in altitude between the coast and the more inland neighborhoods.