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| Graffiti on a wall in Catania |
So it was with a lot of curiosity and a little trepidation that I looked forward to a stop on the island, on a recent Disney cruise.
The stop we had was at Catania, the second largest city on the island which boasts a population of about a million people.
Catania is also famous because it sits right
at the foot of Mount Etna, the
biggest volcano in Europe which the news
would often have us thinking, is always on the
verge of eruption.
Interestingly, the Sicilians have found a way
to benefit from the lava spewed by that very active and threatening volcano as
large amounts of their souvenirs are carved from the molten rock (lava) that it spills out.
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| Mt. Etna hovers threateningly over the city |
I found the city to be absolutely beautiful with its profusion of carefully and lovingly restored baroque architecture dating back from the 16th century, the romantic sidewalk cafes on every block, the bustling outdoor food markets with their anxious, loud and knowledgeable shoppers, crowded streets and fabulous green areas.
There was an ease and pleasantness about the entire area that one would never have expected in a place associated with the mafia!
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Also after having visited a number of other Italian towns including Rome, the thing that struck me very quickly too was how much wider the streets were in Catania and how much more modern and larger the cars were, especially in comparison to those in Rome, where we had seen a profusion of some of the smallest cars every built.
Then there was the hard to ignore, number of huge, elegant churches in close proximity to each other.
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Also after having visited a number of other Italian towns including Rome, the thing that struck me very quickly too was how much wider the streets were in Catania and how much more modern and larger the cars were, especially in comparison to those in Rome, where we had seen a profusion of some of the smallest cars every built.
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| One of the beautifully landscaped green areas. |
I was so surprised to see so many churches that I immediately started counting as we walked around and after counting twelve in less than a two block area, gave up the task.
The vast number of churches was not noticed by only me however as I heard a tourist loudly proclaiming that they probably have so many churches as since the mafia probably kills someone on every block, the killers need to find a church nearby at which to confess lest they too meet a similar fate in quick retaliation!
With the bad reputation that Sicily has earned worldwide as being mafia country however, it felt very peaceful and safe and not even the pickpockets that the guides had warned us about seemed to be active in the busy streets.OH it is not that no one got a taste of what a mafia country is like for my daughter was robbed but not in the way you might expect.
You see, when it comes to travel, she has the discipline of sending postcards to all and sundry and here as usual she sought out as Post Office to buy stamps. We found a huge one on the long, central Via Etnea where what appeared to be a very nice man used his halting English to assist her. 
She had eleven postcards and he supplied her with the stamps and showed her how many to put on each, before stating the total cost was Euro 22. It was only when we were in the park that she realized how easily she had been robbed as she recollected that she had put stamps with values of 60 and 30 on each postcard and with eleven postcards the total should have been Euro 9.90 but instead he had taken advantage of her inability to communicate properly (and do a small calculation too!) and bilked her twice as much as it cost to post them!Such is life in mafia country but despite that experience which could probably happen anywhere when one drops their guard, Catania is a warm, hospitable, historic, attractive and romantic city and certainly well worth visiting even if the graffiti gets a bit overwhelming at times.
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