Escursioni Etna

The Dome square built after the earthquake of 1693 is the point where the main streets of the city converge. In the middle we will find the elephant fountain, the emblem of the town.

The Cathedral of Catania, dedicated to S. Agata, built by Normans between 1070 and 1093. Inside it there is the grave of the famous Catanese musician “Vincenzo Bellini”.

In both sides of Crociferi street there are wonderful baroque churches and noble buildings of the 18th century. The name of the streets comes from the church of S.Camillo of Crociferi priests. The San Giuliano street;  San Benedetto church;  San Francesco d’Assisi.

The Roman temple and the amphitheatre are important roman ruins that now lay between modern buildings. For the construction of both buildings lava rocks were employed.

The Porta Uzeda, named after the Vicere’s name, was built in 1500. During 1696 it became the official entrance of the city.

The Ursino Castle of the Middle Age, built in XIII century on the coast. In 1669 an eruption modified the topography  where the castle rose. Today it is 1 km from the coast.

The Collegiata basilica in 1393 received the title of Regia Cappella and in 1446 became a college.

The Massimo Bellini theatre inagurated in 1890 by  showing the “Norma”, Bellini’s opera.

The Alcantara river flows, tortuous and inaccessible, 1200 metres on Etna sides.
A Thousands of years ago a strong lava flow, aroused from a crater of Mojo, invaded the valley and covered the riverbed.
Getting cold the incandescent magma formed high walls of basaltic prisms geometrically perfect.
During the following millenniums, the cold and inaccessible waters of Alcantra river eroded the lava flow drawing a landscape similar to a canyon, le gole dell'Alcantra.
The descent on foot permits to see the whole view of the opening part of the “Gole”.
Once you arrive at the riverbed, the walls more than 50 metres high, press in the middle  a tongue of water showing their ambiguous beauty: black geometrical structures that raise one in front of the other and chasing each other toward the sky.
The lines intersect, forming pentagonal and hexagonal prisms or irregular figures that play with the light drawing monstrous or graceful shapes.
The contrast is strong and seems getting stronger by seeping in the interior, when just three elements remain: the rock, the water and the sky.It is the sun that draws the black outlines of the shaded parts and the clear ones, it refracts in thousands of little mirrors the drops of the falls that sometimes go along the walls.