Catania

My first experience with Catania was a week or so after we arrived. My sponsor took me and the kids out for quite the experience! I have previously mentioned the driving around here, and the worst I’ve seen has been in Catania. I’ll spare you the details, but I’m not driving into Catania by myself any time soon. Once we arrived I strapped the kids in the double stroller and off we went, navigating through the city square and streets, ending up at the market. The market was packed with various venders selling everything you can imagine and shoppers. The amount of fruit, vegetables, nuts, shoes, clothes, cheese, meats, and other various items was truly remarkable. In awe, I proceeded to push my kids through the crowd, running over feet left and right. I of course felt bad, but it was impossible to navigate without casualties. The kids were troopers and overall it was a successful trip, a nice way to spend the morning with a new friend.


The second time I went to Catania (the trip where the pictures come from) was with our cultural class during our Indoctrination (INDOC) week. INDOC week is spent in a classroom with people giving presentations about the base and how to get involved, registered, ect. We happened to miss, ok, we just plain didn’t go to several of the classes. However, the classes we were sure not to miss were cultural classes and field trips. The most important part of the field trip was that Greg and I went without any children. We ate a lovely breakfast of Granita at a local bar (bars here serve pastries, gelato, and snacks). Afterwards, went into the cathedral in the square that housed beautiful artwork, organ pipes, and the remains of a beloved Cardinal, toured the fish market where the ground was sopping with water, blood, and I’m sure fish parts, ventured into the ruins of a Roman amphitheater, and made our way through the market before heading to lunch.

So I don’t get it wrong, I’m going to let Robert Andrews and Jules Brown, the authors of The Rough Guide to Sicily, tell you some history about Catania. “Catania is Sicily’s second largest city. Some of the island’s first Greek colonists, probably Chalcidinians from Naxos, settled the site as early as 729 BC… Later, the city was among the first to fall to the Romans, under whom it prospered greatly. Unusually for Sicily, Catania’s surviving ancient relics are all Roman. Etna erupted in 1669, engulfing the city in lava, while the great earthquake of 1693 devastated the whole of southeastern Sicily. Piazza del Duomo is one of Sicily’s most elegant Baroque piazzas... softened by the addition of a fountain, no less than a lava elephant supporting an Egyptian obelisk on its back. The elephant has been the city’s symbol since at least the thirteenth century, a talismanic protection against Etna eruptions, and this one also features an inscription, Agatina MSSHDEPL- an acronym for “The mind of St Agatha is sane and spontaneous, honouring God and liberating the city.” St. Agatha is the patron saint.”

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