Hotels near Catania Fontanarossa Airport - CTA, Catania

Majestic and historically unique city of mysterious Sicily! This very city may attract and passel your curiosity with a variety of facades, images, contrasting with a decent locals and something else. City flows with abandon roads of modern and hysterical buildings, mixing with exquisite fashion ateliers and the cutes private souvenirs’s shops. at the same time you can see that there are many baggers in the area together with the street skilled musicians and painters that are trying to just get by day by day. A mixture of feelings, perhaps, what it worth to experience together with a magical Etna and the history that still needs to be revealed.

I really liked Catania, although I think I would spend a bit less time there if I visited again. The restaurants and bars are great, and I loved that you can walk to almost everything — the city is very easy to explore on foot. Prices are reasonable as well. One of the highlights was being able to visit Mount Etna from Catania. Just make sure you know the exact protocol in advance, especially regarding bus schedules and buying tickets early enough. With a bit of planning, it’s definitely worth it. Overall, the city is lovely, but I would have preferred to spend more time exploring other places as well. The bus and train connections are excellent, so I never missed having a rental car — in fact, I wouldn’t rent one at all because the public transport works so well.

Catania was a bit surprising, and not in the best way. Compared to other Italian cities I’ve visited, the city lacks cleanliness and in some places has an unpleasant smell. In many cafés, the waiters speak English poorly, but everything can be worked out. People are friendly. If you choose a good place to stay, you can walk to many spots. There are both paid and free beaches; we chose a paid one for comfort (sunbeds). It’s convenient to travel to Syracuse or Taormina by bus. I would recommend staying for 1–2 days and then continuing to explore other parts of Sicily.

At the first glance, the streets and the buildings seem dark and dirty, but I would say that Catania is just not as photogenic as many other cities.The feeling changes once you get used to the dark (volcanic) stone it was built with; I am from Dalmatia (Croatia) and I am used to the white marble we have so Catania seemed weird and even ugly at first. But give it time! My plan was to use Catania just as a base for my visit to Etna craters (I strongly recommend), so I did not expect anything from the city itself, I stayed for a very short time and missed a chance to visit everything it offers, but I think that was a mistake and that I might come back! Visited both Greek and Roman theatre, had some cannoli. The airport is very close to the city, don't miss visiting gorgeous Taormina while you are in Catania!!! (And far less gorgeous and messy Siracusa and its stunning Greek theatre and Archeological museum).

Catania is conveniently placed, you can visit very interesting places by public transport - Taormina, Siracuse, Messina,Noto, Ragusa and other places. The weather in November was fantastic, sunny, warn but not hot, ideal for walking and exploring.

Catania is the capital of "Dark" baroque immersed in history with a plethora of churches and historical palazzi. The coffee and sweet pastries are second to none. Try a raviola with sweet ricotta baked or fried and your palate will never be the same. Due to over fishing and global warming the variety of the fish displayed at the historical fish market has unfortunately noticeably declined. The administration should consider going the full mile and plan an underground/overground frequent connection from the airport to the city centre (sesticoro metro).