Tour

Sicily & Southern Italy

Rick Steves Tour

July 2007

Day trips to Catania and Mount Etna on the way to Taormina.

Alfio showed us around Catania, where he was born and raised (He also received his doctorate degree there). We spent time wandering the streets of Catania and were then led through the fish market. Afterwards I enjoyed lunch and an interesting conversation with Alfio, Margaret, and Peter.

Catania

Catania was unique from the other places we visited due to the dark stone from lava rock used to build the buildings as opposed to the predominately white stone or marble found in most other locations throughout Italy.

Mount Etna
			From Catania, we drove up to Mount Etna, the largest and most active volcano in Europe. We didn't hike up to the top of the volcano, but roamed around the massive hills and craters formed by lava. Catania suffered and was nearly destroyed from a huge eruption in the 1660's. The most recent eruption was in 2006.