Anyway, I don't think that I can fully explain what Catania is like. It's very large, fairly dirty, extremely disorganized, quite loud and potentially hazardous. If we didn't have Matt and Susan there to pick us up and show us around we probably would have been hopelessly lost. It's nearly impossible to figure out where things are or where the buses go until you've experienced them for a day or two.
The neat thing, though, is that once you get a feel for the city it kind of makes sense. The giant volcano is north. The big water is eastish. Via Etnea is the street which runs down to the plaza by the Duomo, and points north to the big volcano. Even though things are dirty on the outside, behind the rough exterior is hidden beauty. And we felt completely safe there, despite the chaos.
It's certainly not a classic tourist location, that's for sure. But it makes for an interesting trip.
Anyway, on our last full day in Catania, we went with Matt and the girls on a little tour of Catania. We saw some of the cathedrals, attempted to visit a toy museum, and saw a very cool Roman coliseum.
If you're in an ancient Roman ruin, it's nice to have a Classics professor along to help explain things.
Let's see, there are apartments. There's some laundry. Oh, and in the background? Yup, that's the two thousand year old coliseum.
A view from where Matt teaches, which shows the true skyline of Catania - crosses and TV antennas.
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