The best towns known for what they grow within 45 minutes of Catania
The ground east of Etna is black, crumbly and absurdly fertile, and it shows in what comes out of it: cherries picked in early summer on the mountain's wooded slopes, prickly pears ripening into autumn, blood oranges that colour up properly only because the nights here turn cold while the days stay warm. Houses are built from the same lava stone, squared off and grey-black, with balconies of wrought iron and doorways framed in it. Markets run on the calendar rather than on the tourist season, so a stall in February is all citrus and a stall in June is all stone fruit. Vineyards climb between the flows on terraces held up by dry lava walls, and the wine tastes of the ash it grew in.
Most visitors to this stretch of Sicily give the produce a passing thought at breakfast and then head for Catania itself, where the fish market off Piazza Duomo is loud, filmed constantly and genuinely excellent, or they book a jeep up to the summit craters. Both are worth doing. Both are also where every coach, cruise excursion and day trip converges, and the granita queues in high summer make that plain.
The same volcanic soil and the same growing zones continue north and inland, through the villages of the mountain's lower slopes and down to the harbours where the fruit used to be shipped. Fewer people stop in them. These are the towns whose names appear on the protected designations themselves, which is a quiet way of saying the produce is theirs before it is anyone else's.
Of the 7 communes we have mapped in a 45-minute drive of Catania, 6 qualify as towns known for what they grow: each sits inside the production zone of a protected fruit or vegetable. The smallest, Sant'Alfio, has 1,509 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The best olive oil towns within 45 minutes of Catania and The best coastal towns within an hour of Catania.
Sant'Alfio
Why visit Sant'Alfio
Sant'Alfio sits at 537 meters on the eastern slope of Etna, eight kilometers from the active crater. The village grew around a seventeenth-century sanctuary dedicated to the brothers Alfio, Filadelfo and Cirino, three Christian martyrs deported from the Greek Aegean to Sicily under Decius and venerated as the town's patrons.
The real draw is older. The Castagno dei Cento Cavalli, on the Linguaglossa road just outside the centro, is the largest and oldest sweet chestnut in the world, between 2,000 and 4,000 years old, listed by Guinness for a recorded girth of 57.9 meters in 1780.
The trunk has since split into separate stems sharing one root system. The legend gives the tree its name: Queen Joanna of Aragon and her hundred mounted retainers are said to have sheltered beneath it during a storm.
The slopes around the village produce Etna Rosso DOC from Nerello Mascalese and cherries that fill the late-June sagra.
What to see in Sant'Alfio
- Castagno dei Cento Cavalli. Sweet chestnut between 2,000 and 4,000 years old on the Linguaglossa road, recorded by Guinness for a girth of 57.9 meters.
- Santuario dei Santi Martiri Alfio, Filadelfo e Cirino. Seventeenth-century parish sanctuary dedicated to the three brother martyrs, raised on a staircase of black Etna lava stone.
- Versante orientale dell'Etna. Lava fields and chestnut and oak woods on the volcano's east flank, crossed by trails from the village toward the summit craters.
How to get to Sant'Alfio
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Catania is roughly 44 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the working months on the east slope of Etna. The chestnut woods leaf out in May, the Sagra della Ciliegia fills the last weekend of June, and the grape harvest runs from late September into October. July and August stay cooler than the Catania plain because of the 537-meter elevation, but the sun is hard and many visitors come for the volcano rather than the village.
Nicolosi
Why visit Nicolosi
Nicolosi sits at 698 meters on the southern slope of Etna, twelve kilometers north of Catania. The town was founded in 1359 around the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena.
In March 1669 a fissure opened above the town and Etna erupted for four months, lava burying part of the settlement and pushing on to Catania harbor. What remained was rebuilt around the church the flow had spared, and the cones left by that eruption, first called Monte della Ruina, later took their name from their color.
Above the rebuilt town the road climbs toward the volcano park and the cable car station, so that Nicolosi works as the point where the settled southern slope, its bread, honey and olive groves, gives way to the bare upper mountain. The town is where the ordinary, inhabited Etna ends and the crater country begins.
What to see in Nicolosi
- Monti Rossi. Twin cones standing over the town, walkable on paths that circle the craters, the ground still dark scoria underfoot.
- Funivia dell'Etna a Rifugio Sapienza. Cable car rising to 2,500 meters, the station reached twenty minutes uphill from Nicolosi and marking the start of the southern ascent on foot beyond the lift.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie. The church the lava did not reach, standing at the center of the rebuilt town, its fabric showing the later repairs made after further seismic damage.
How to get to Nicolosi
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Catania is roughly 28 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October are the working months on the southern Etna slope. Nicolosi at 698 meters runs five to seven degrees cooler than Catania; July and August are bearable here while the coast is not. The Funivia dell'Etna operates year-round, with snow at the cable car upper station from late November through April.
Taormina
Why visit Taormina
The town sits at 204 meters on the rock above the coast, on the Ionian shore halfway between Messina and Catania. The Siculi welcomed the survivors of the Greek colony of Naxos in 358 BC after Dionysius of Syracuse destroyed it, and Andromachus refounded them as Tauromenium on the height above.
Augustus later made it a Roman colony, deporting much of the population and resettling it with Roman families. The centro sits below the fortress and above the sea: the Arab-Norman stronghold occupies the rock at 397 meters, while further up the hillside the frazione of Castelmola hangs at 884, both looking down on the same stretch of coast the theatre faces.
The small island reserve lies at the opposite end of that vertical arrangement, at sea level below the cliff, reached by cable car or path from the town above. A place built in tiers, from the beach at the base to the fortress on the rock to the village above that, all of it oriented toward the same view of the volcano and the water that made a nineteenth-century travel writer's description enough to start a tourist route still followed today.
St. George by Heinz Beck, La Capinera, Vineria Modì and 11 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Taormina
- Teatro Antico. The stone rows face south, so the audience looks past the stage wall to Etna rather than toward it. 109 meters in diameter, the remodelling under Roman rule widened the space for spectacle beyond Greek drama.
- Palazzo Corvaja. Fourteenth-century Sicilian-Gothic palace at the entrance to Corso Umberto, on the site of the Roman forum and the Arab cube of the citadel.
- Castello di Monte Tauro. Arab-Norman fortress at 397 meters on the rock above the centro, reached on foot from Via Circonvallazione.
How to get to Taormina
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Catania is roughly 45 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May, June, September and October are the working months in Taormina. Late spring keeps the air clear over Etna and the cruise season has not yet peaked. Taormina Arte runs concerts and opera at the Teatro Antico from June through August; the same weeks bring the highest crowds on Corso Umberto.
Riposto
Why visit Riposto
Riposto sits on the Ionian coast twenty-five kilometres north of Catania, at the eastern foot of Etna and the southern edge of the Giarre-Riposto conurbation. The name is commercial: u ripostu in Sicilian, the cellar, because the wine produced in the surrounding county of Mascali was stored here before being loaded onto ships.
The town was the commercial port of Mascali from the sixteenth century onwards, won full administrative autonomy in the eighteenth, and was merged with neighbouring Giarre under the name Jonia from 1939 until 1945, when the two split again. Today the Porto dell'Etna, also called Marina di Riposto, runs as a combined tourist marina, fishing port and small commercial harbour.
Locals still call the town the port of the volcano. Etna fills the western skyline, the railway runs to Catania along the coast, and the historic centre threads between churches built when the wine trade still paid for them.
Zash, La Cucina di Donna Carmela, Vico Astemio have been named by a guide.
What to see in Riposto
- Porto dell'Etna. The combined tourist marina, fishing and commercial port, the largest pleasure harbour between Catania and Messina.
- Chiesa Madre San Pietro. The mother church on the main square, rebuilt in the eighteenth century when Riposto's wine trade financed new construction.
- Centro storico. Grid of streets parallel to the seafront, with palazzi and warehouses built during the eighteenth and nineteenth century wine boom.
How to get to Riposto
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Catania is roughly 29 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May, June, September and October are the dry, clear months when the Ionian is warm enough to swim and Etna stays visible from the seafront. July and August are hot and crowded: the marina fills with sailing traffic and the lungomare runs at full capacity until late. November through March is quiet.
Aci Castello
Why visit Aci Castello
Aci Castello sits ten kilometres north of Catania on the Riviera dei Ciclopi, where the lava-black basalt coast meets the Ionian Sea. The town's anchor is the Castello Normanno (Castello d'Aci), built in 1076 by Roger I of Sicily on a basalt sea-stack thrown up by an underwater Etna eruption around 25,000 BC; the Aragonese expanded it in the 14th century and it now houses the Civic Museum of Aci Castello.
Just offshore stand the Isole dei Ciclopi — the seven basalt sea-stacks that Homer identified as the rocks Polyphemus the Cyclops hurled at Odysseus's ship in Book IX of the Odyssey, and which are now a protected marine reserve. The frazione of Aci Trezza (the larger fishing village south of the castle) is where Giovanni Verga set I Malavoglia (The House by the Medlar Tree, 1881), the founding novel of Italian verismo.
The coastline between Castello and Trezza is a single black-pebble swimming front, with the dramatic profile of Etna rising behind.
Faraglioni Restaurant have been named by a guide.
What to see in Aci Castello
- Castello Normanno di Aci. 1076 Norman castle on a basalt sea-stack thrown up by an underwater Etna eruption c. 25,000 BC. Aragonese expansion 14th c. Houses the Civic Museum with the stratigraphic and natural-history collections.
- Isole dei Ciclopi. Seven basalt sea-stacks offshore — Homer's Cyclopean rocks from Odyssey Book IX. Now a protected marine reserve (AMP Isole Ciclopi), with snorkelling tours from Aci Trezza.
- Aci Trezza — terra di Verga. Fishing-village frazione where Giovanni Verga set I Malavoglia (1881), the founding novel of Italian verismo. The old harbour and Casa del Nespolo museum trace the literary setting.
How to get to Aci Castello
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Catania is roughly 12 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the season on the Ionian coast. May and September are the best months: warm Mediterranean sea, lava-rock swimming comfortable, the castle museum at full hours. June brings the patronal feast of San Mauro. Arancino Festival falls in September.
Giarre
Why visit Giarre
Giarre sits on the lower eastern slope of Etna at eighty metres, thirty kilometres north of Catania and three from the sea at Riposto. From the late sixteenth century until 1815 it was a village of the county of Mascali; it separated after the abolition of feudalism and built itself a town centre in the decades that followed.
The Duomo di Sant'Isidoro Agricola, begun in 1794 and opened for worship in 1818, is the result: a neoclassical mother church in white stone, with a large central nave, two lateral naves, a transept, and a dome with lantern. The two bell towers, designed by the Neapolitan architect Pietro Valente, were begun in 1859 and finished only in 1890.
Inside, the church holds one of the most substantial collections of sacred silverware in eastern Sicily. From 1939 to 1945 Giarre was merged with Riposto under the fascist name Jonia.
The two towns still form a single conurbation along the coast.
Cioccolateria e Caffetteria Fabbrica Finocchiaro, Casu Osteria Contemporanea have been named by a guide.
What to see in Giarre
- Duomo di Sant'Isidoro Agricola. Neoclassical mother church begun in 1794, two bell towers by Pietro Valente, and one of eastern Sicily's largest collections of sacred silverware.
- Piazza Duomo. The main square at the centre of the historic grid, with the duomo facing the foothill of Etna to the west.
- Corso Italia. The principal axis of the town, running between the duomo and the open country towards Riposto and the sea.
How to get to Giarre
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Catania is roughly 26 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June, then September and October, are when Giarre is at its best: clear views of Etna from the duomo square, citrus blossom on the slopes above town, and the coast at Riposto still calm. July and August are hot and crowded along the seafront, though the upper town keeps cooler at eighty metres. November through March is the quiet season, with rain off the Ionian and snow on the volcano.
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