Culture
Catania is theatre, music, art and memory. From museums to noble palaces, every place is a fragment of a city that always has something to tell.
Eleven places in the centre, all reachable on foot from the apartment: the squares and gardens where anyone visiting Catania for the first time starts, the opera house, and the ancient city that lies beneath street level.
To see
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church
Basilica Cattedrale di Sant'Agata — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The city's cathedral, on Piazza del Duomo with the Elephant Fountain.
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square
Piazza dell'Università — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The square on the Via Etnea axis, between the University palace and Palazzo San Giuliano.
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museum
Castello Ursino — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
A 13th-century Hohenstaufen castle, today the city's civic museum.
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garden
Giardino Bellini - Villa Bellini — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The city's historic garden.
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stroll
Via Etnea — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The main shopping and strolling street, with Etna in the background.
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archaeology
Anfiteatro romano — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The remains of the Roman-imperial amphitheatre, uncovered below the level of Piazza Stesicoro.
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archaeology
Teatro Antico greco-romano — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The theatre and the small odeon beside it, wedged between the houses of the neighbourhood.
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archaeology
Terme Achilliane — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The Roman-era baths, preserved below the level of Piazza Duomo.
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garden
Orto Botanico di Catania — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The University's botanical garden, dating from the mid-1800s, with its greenhouses and succulent-plant collection.
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theatre
Teatro Massimo Bellini — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The city's opera house, opened in 1890 with Bellini's Norma.
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church
Chiesa della Badia di Sant'Agata — open on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini's late-Baroque work, a short walk from the Cathedral.