2 DAYS in CATANIA SICILY - What to see and do.

Join us on a two-week Sicilian adventure. In this video we're going to get lost and explore Catania. We will treasure hunt, enjoy markets, explore the city, and have great food and wine. We're two retirees hooked on travel. Follow us on our journeys around the world. We arrived in the evening and we were lucky enough to find an apartment just a block away from the main plaza of Del Duomo. It's Saturday evening, mid-November, and it still feels like summer. This fountain is being fed by an underground river. The next day we crossed the same plaza with the elephant fountain and we just happened to run into the Sunday antique and flea market. We arrived at the Sunday market. I find markets like this extremely fascinating. It's like shopping and looking back in time. From stall to stall, you just never know what you're going to find. If you like markets like this or garage sales, you're going to have a great time. The variety of things and items you will rarely see in the United States. Italy has a long history. It's an old country and has always been a leader in design and style. To me, it sure seems like some of these prices are ridiculously cheap, with many of the items just one or two euros each. You can buy already cooked fresh seafood and you can order it too. It's a great way to spend Sunday morning and mix with the locals. Zarco actually fell in love with this old radio, but it wouldn't fit in our luggage. There's even old cowbells and milk jugs for sale. Look at this. Even stuff from World War II. Catania is referred to as the Black City because the black lava rock from Mount Etna is used extensively in construction. The streets and sidewalks are paved with the black stone and the buildings have the black dust from Mount Etna, which is an active volcano and you can see it in the distance. The famous Italian composer Bellini was from Catania and this monument is in his honor. Corso Sicilia is one of the main shopping streets and it's closed to traffic. I think only buses are allowed. You will definitely not go hungry here. There's many choices for food and all kinds of restaurants. The church of San Nicolo is a really interesting place to visit. The construction began in 1687 but was interrupted by the famous 1693 Sicily earthquake. As you can see, the columns were never finished and it kind of gives it a surreal look. You can pay extra and go up on the top for a view if you want to. Okay, we're inside the church of San Nicolo La Arena. It has some giant pillars to support this massive roof and an amazing organ. The organ seems to be the backdrop of the entire place. Well, we're checking out the market and the fish market and last night this was all set up with restaurants and this morning now it's all set up as a farmer's market. What is that, broccoli or cauliflower? Wow. Farm fresh produce, fresh seafood straight from the boats, local cheeses and dry meats galore. This is a chef's paradise. Look at some of these salamis. Wow, look at the swordfish. My new favorite fish, swordfish. You can just get a steak freshly chopped. 20 euros per kilo, ten dollars a pound. What's that? What kind of tuna is that, that red tuna? I think it's a bluefin. Bluefin. All the nuts, spices, vegetables. You can have it right here fresh on the half shell. Three euros. Right here you can have, looks like raw octopus. Smoked, smoked swordfish. Looks like smoked swordfish, oysters, half shell, fresh. People were saying that these artichokes and roasted peppers, you can take that home. They must have some amazing farms here on the island. Another great place to visit is the Greek Roman Theater. It was designed to hold up to 7,000 spectators. It was used mainly in the 4th and 5th century. I love the palm trees and oleanders. So our plan is to go up there on the top of that dome so we can get a good view of the city. And that might be kind of fun to go inside as well. This is Baria St. Agatha Church. Let's go inside. Okay, we made it. Well there's the Ionian Sea. This is the Belvedere viewpoint and you're gonna have to go some very steep spiral stairs up this tube, up this tube right here to get to the very, very top. This gives you an idea of what the stairs are like. There's there's spiral staircases and it's straight up a tube. Get some neat views on the way up. All right, when you get to the top you're rewarded with some amazing views of the city. And there's Mount Etna in the distance under the clouds. If you're coming here on a cruise ship, the port is just 15 minute walk. Kind of get an idea of the extent of the city, the size. So from up here you can really get a good view of the center there and also the elephant fountain. And you get a sense of how big that area is. Another attraction is Orsino Castle, which is an art and history museum. You probably can go inside, you can probably go inside, but it's a museum. I'm not sure you want to, we're not into museums much, but it's really a big nice beautiful building from the outside. Cypress trees are really pretty. We were here last night on a Sunday night and it was completely packed. There wasn't one table available. They had a DJ playing music. It was a totally different environment. This evening is nice if you want to have dinner. There's lots of places to eat. Places that people don't start eating late here like eight o'clock. So it's still really quiet. The city is a lot livelier at night. People come out to stroll the passeggiata, which means the walking street, and doing some shopping. It's kind of interesting like when you're walking down the side streets and whatnot you run into shops that all carry sort of the same thing. So this shop here, this street right here apparently has a lot of costumes. It's for costume parties and basically for parties. They all have the same thing kind of thing. Yeah well this is where they have a lot of sewing and party stuff and it's a lot more interesting than what we saw earlier when we were walking through another block. And that block all it was was for funerals. Everybody was selling coffins and here everybody's selling material, party stuff, knickknacky things. It's really fun to walk the side streets. We love it because you can you just don't know what you're gonna find. I mean right now we're we landed upon the block that sells wedding dresses but you just don't know what you're gonna see and find. And you see where like the locals shop and where they get things, not just a touristy place. And look at this beautiful wedding dress. Wow. You wanna get knitted again? So anyway, get out there and explore and get off just the main streets and start exploring and get on the side streets. The food and wine choices here are enormous. The pasta alla norma is a local favorite made with pasta, eggplant, marinara, and basil. The caponata is an appetizer dish made with eggplant, onions, celery, tomatoes, olives, and capers. And it's delicious. You have to try the arancini. It's rosato rolled in a ball with different stuffing in the middle, breaded, and fried. It's very filling and quite good. And for dessert, try the cannoli, which is a sweetened ricotta cream served with fruit, pistachios, stuffed inside a sweet pastry tube. In our next video, we're heading south to the beautiful seaside town of Syracuse. Click the bell to be notified when it's posted.