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Catania
City in Sicily, Italy

Catania

Catania is the second-largest city in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy, after Palermo, both by area and by population.

Plan a trip to Catania→From Lamezia Terme (CZ)

Despite being the second largest city of the island, Catania is the centre of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, which is among the largest in Italy. It has important road and rail transport infrastructures, and hosts the main airport of Sicily. The city is located on Sicily's east coast, facing the Ionian Sea at the base of the active volcano Mount Etna. It is the capital of the 58-municipality province known as the Metropolitan City of Catania, which is the seventh-largest metropolitan area in Italy. The population of the city proper is 296,984, while the population of the metropolitan city is 1,067,550.

Get in

Getting to Catania

Eruptions of Mount Etna and Stromboli can cause disruptions of the flights, such as in July 2024.

  1. 01
    Catania-Fontanarossa Airport

    The airport is on the coast 5 km (3.1 mi) south of central Catania.

  2. 02
    Stazione AST
See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Piazza del Duomo

    Here you can find the Fontana dell'Elefante (Elephant Fountain) or U Liotru - the symbol of the city.

  2. 02
    Cattedrale di Sant'Agata

    An imposing cathedral, well worth visiting.

  3. 03
    Museo Diocesano

    The collection of the museum contains various religious artefacts from the Cathedral and some other churches around.

  4. 04
    Palazzo degli Elefanti
  5. 05
    Palazzo dei Chierici
  6. 06
    Chiesa della Badia di Sant'Agata

    Via Vittorio Emanuele 184.

Do

Things to do

  1. 01
    Via Etnea

    Walk the main shopping avenue, running north from the Piazza del Duomo has most of the city's imposing building and is busy throughout the day and evening.

Eat

Where to eat

Catania is proud of its specialities. A famous speciality is pasta alla Norma which consists in pasta (generally macaroni) dressed with tomato sauce and topped with fried eggplant slices, grated ricotta salata (salty ricotta) and fresh basil. The fish is also good, as Catania is a large port. The city is also known for horse meat, especially in some areas around the "Benedictine Monastery".

  1. 01
    Camelot

    73 Piazza Federico di Svevia (near Castello Ursino).

  2. 02
    L'Angolo dello Chef

    21 Via Grimaldi (corner of Via Plebiscito).

  3. 03
    Il Borgo di Federico

    Piazza Federico di Svevia, 100.

  4. 04
    Ristorante da Antonio

    Via Castello Ursino, 59.

  5. 05
    Scirocco Sicilian Fish Lab

    Piazza Alonzo di Benedetto, 7.

How locals move

Getting around Catania the local way

  • Get inThree of these per day are direct services to Naples (7-8 hours) and Rome (10 hours), via the Straits ferry.
  • Get inMost travellers from mainland Italy use the 20-minute shuttle between Villa San Giovanni and Messina; there are also frequent ferries from Reggio to Messina.
  • Get inA car ferry runs every night between Naples and Catania: it's run by TTT lines and takes 12 hours.
  • Get inOther ferries sail from the mainland to Palermo.
  • Get inA car ferry runs twice a day between Pozzallo (90 km south of Catania) and Valletta, Malta.
  • Get inIt's run by Virtu Ferries and takes one hour 45 min, return fare €80 low season rising to €160 mid-summer.
  • Go nextOn the north coast either turn west for Palermo, or go a little way north to Milazzo the port for the Aeolian Islands, or turn east to the ferry port of Messina.

From Wikivoyage: Catania, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.