Day Five Saturday, June 4: Going for Baroque in Catania, Sicily

Today, we decided to tour the old, historic part of the city of Catania, Sicily, which has lots of Baroque architecture.  It was another long day!


As we left our hotel, we ran into a young couple from Australia, just checking in. They asked the hotel clerk about buses into the city, and she told them they could take the hotel shuttle into the city for 30 Euros.  We told them they could just walk down the street and catch a city bus for 1-2 Euros. 


We caught the city bus all the way to the downtown bus and train station.  Again, the bus squeezed through traffic and very narrow streets, the walls along the streets sometimes so close that we could reach out and touch them.  Once, a car had parked too close in the street to let the bus squeeze by, so the bus driver honked and honked and waited, and all the cars backed up behind us honked and waited, too, until  the errant driver showed up and moved his car.


We got off at the downtown train and bus station, and found our way to Via Vittoria Emmanuel, a main street with lots of old buildings, including churches.  We walked to the ruins of a Roman amphitheater, through an old monastery, saw lots of old churches, and did some souvenir shopping.  See photos below:



Old church in Catania



Stockings on sale in a store in Catania, Sicily

Ruins of old Roman amphitheatre in Catania, Sicily

We also saw a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, enjoying each other's company on a park bench in a plaza filled with people, and a McDonald's:

Romeo and Juliet?

McDonald's surrounded by nice architecture

We bought and shared an ice cream cone in a large plaza area. We walked around until 4 p.m., then back to try to catch our bus at the bus and train station.  We kept asking when the bus to our area was due, but no one seemed to really know, they just kept telling us to wait.  Finally, one of the drivers said he did not think that bus came until 6:45 p.m., so we just took another bus and then transferred to another one.  On that bus was the young Australian couple from this morning, headed back to the hotel, so we talked to them a bit about their experiences that day.


Too tired to try any other restaurant, we just got pizza again from the little place down the street.  When we returned to the hotel room, our air-conditioning did not work.  We called the front desk and were told that their computer said the AC did not work because one of our windows was open!  So, we checked the window, found that it was open, and closed it!


Tomorrow, we just relaxed most of the day, as  you will see in the next blog.