Experience Sicily

Tag: catania

  • When the Saints Go Marching In

    All Saints Day is a day to remember all the saints known and unknown. On All Saints Day, November 1, we also remember martyrs, like Sant’Agata of Catania. 

  • American Football in Sicily 

    Although I’ve got baseball on my mind (Go Cubs!), American football season is well underway. Which brings to mind that Catania, Sicily’s second largest city, has an American football team. They are called the Elephants (after their city’s symbol, Liotru, the Roman-era volcanic sculpture in the Piazza del Duomo). My friend Alfred Zappala of You,…

  • Savoring Sicily, Day 8: Friends Make Me Rich

    I promised our guests that they’d meet friends along the way, and today, Day 8 of Savoring Sicily, we certainly did! My heart is so full after a day meeting old friends and new who hosted us in the most wonderful ways… Through song, food, and wine! I want to gush and gush! I’ll try…

  • Savoring Sicily, Day 7: We Learned Who’s Boss 

    We savored Etna today. Our expert guide Fabrizio was fantastic, driving off-road,  taking us into a dark, dark lava cave, and leading us around the Silvestri crater… All followed by picnic lunch of typical foods, many made by his friends and family. Savoring Sicily, Day 7 was nature powered! Time for dinner! 

  • Catania’s Elephant 

    Two rivers meet under Catania’s Piazza del Duomo to feed the Fontana dell’Elefante, or the Elephant Fountain. Designed by G.B. Vaccarini in 1736, this focal point of the cathedral’s square possesses an ancient Roman-era statue of an elephant made from black lava stone holding an Egyptian obelisk that boasts hieroglyphics about the goddess Isis, and…

  • Nothing Short about Maletto’s Cake

    This weekend in Maletto, a town between Randazzo and Bronte on the north slope of Mount Etna, citizens celebrate the 31st annual Sagra della Fragola, or Strawberry Festival. Strawberries, like the ones pictured, are celebrated in all forms: strawberry cake, strawberry pastries, strawberry gelato, strawberry jams, strawberry risotto, strawberry … you get the idea! There’s…

  • A Bouquet of Artichokes

    Spring artichokes at Catania’s market.

  • Bellini is Tops

    Catania and Sicily are very proud of their “son,” the opera composer, Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) featured here in Catania’s center. Bellini was born into a family of musicians in Catania and left Sicily at 18 years old to study at the conservatory in Naples. He lived abroad for the rest of his virtuosic life, dying…

  • Peas in a Pod

    Fava beans at Catania’s open-air market (In season, spring 2015).