Catania, Sicily

Catania was our first destination of our two-week road trip around Sicily and would eventually be our last as we would also be flying home from there. To fly to Sicily from the UK you can either fly to Catania or Palermo and we chose Catania only really because the flights and car hire seemed to be cheaper from here.

After landing quite late in the evening we jumped in a taxi and headed straight to our apartment, which was lovely, had a private balcony and was run by friendly family who lived in the floor below. The taxi was a short distance and only took about 10 to 15 minutes but was quite expensive and we think we paid an inflated tourist rate! Once we had settled into the apartment, we walked the 10-minute journey into the city centre and had a nice cocktail in the old town before heading to bed.

The next day was our only full day in Catania, so we woke up early and headed into town to explore. It would also be the first time we would experience some of Sicily delicious culinary delights, which would become a staple to our diets for the next two weeks!

When walking into town we went past a classic Sicilian café that we had read about and ordered a croissant 🥐 filled with Pistachio cream, a treat which is famous around Sicily. They were absolutely delicious and would be the first of many throughout our trip. We then headed to Catania’s famous fish market and walked around and saw all the vendors selling a variety of local fish and seafood. Stupidly Rory was wearing his sliders and his feet got rather wet and covered in fishy water! 🤢 We each had a fresh Oyster 🦪 from one of the market stalls which was delicious but we both agreed that 10am was a little early for an Oyster! For the rest of the day, we explored some of the many beautiful churches and the impressive Cathedral. For lunch we had our first arancini ball of the trip, (a deep-fried rice ball filled with ham & cheese) again the first of many on this trip, and for dinner went to Trattoria. A Trattoria is a family run restaurant which usually has a simple but delicious menu. Here we both had our first bowls of pasta of the trip. 🍝