Catania - tell me I’m wrong:(

[BIWI]

Here for a few days. First day today. Old town/centre is fine. The rest is shit. Dirty, rundown graffiti, litter.

Taormina is nearby and very beautiful.

Isn’t Catania just where you fly into? I remember it from holidays in the 80s and it was a dump then. We stayed in Taormina.

Not asking about Taormina though.

I felt like that about Genoa, but some seem to love it.

I don’t think Catania is a holiday place it’s just a town with an airport isn’t it. We flew there years ago and stayed at a place with a gorgeous beach and lovely hotels called Guardini Naxos.
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We’re in Catania. Not going anywhere else! Anywhere we should look out for here, rather than anywhere else?

Can you go on a day trip to Taormina or somewhere like that? It's only 40 mins away or so. Feels a shame to go all the way to Sicily and just stay in the airport town!

We did some nice snorkelling from a beach near Catania, and good day trip up Mt Etna, town nice in the evening for a walk and dinner but that was about it

Can't you google what's around you and easy to get to, such as Taormina for a day trip (less than an hour away), somewhere to view Mt. Etna, another coastal spot, a local market etc. Chat GPT is a very "friendly" thing for questions like this. Try a search.

If you hire a car read the theft exclusion insurance very carefully, our hire car was stolen there and it cost us a fortune…

Take one of the 4 trains a day to Syracuse, the old centre is a UNESCO world heritage site. I know you are asking about Catania, but maybe this best advice is to get out and explore elsewhere other bits of the island.

Honestly we loved Catania, an authentic city - just walking round and admiring the buildings, sitting for coffees, cheapest cocktails ever, great food, day trips to Taorimina and Syracuse and further afield Nota. Can't wait to go back, sorry you aren't enjoying it maybe because I'm a history bore it's past really appealed to me

I agree with taormina or syracuse. There are plenty of buses going there.

I loved Catania (only there for the weekend) but other places are easily accessible - Mount Etna etc as previously mentioned. I seem to remember some archeological ruins or something?
DS loved it & chose to go back for his honeymoon so there must be something good about it.

We’re going on a trip to Mount Etna tomorrow so looking forward to that. To be fair, we’ve eaten really well so far, and the locals are lovely. It’s just so much not what I expected, beyond the old town/historic centre.

Take the train or bus to Syracuse for the day.

As well as the many other suggestions I'd go and visit the Gole di Alcantara. It's a gorge and nature reserve and you can walk through the river. It's really beautiful and interesting. If you've got kids they'll love it. You can probably get a tour there if you don't want to do it independently.

The Baroque towns in the south east are stunning - Noto, Ragusa and Modica - and are well connected by train or bus. Ortigia (linked to Syracuse) is also beautiful.

It's a bit like flying into Luton & complaining its a shit-hole !

Just go away for day trips, as others have said.

Catania and syracuse not so nice. Palermo is great for city. Tourimino and the islands are definitely worth visiting!!

Taormina, or Ortigia on the train. The Godfather Tour. Alcantara Gorge. Noto. A friend of mine went to Sicily the year before we did and hated Palermo and Catania for much the same reasons as you are posting. So we avoided it, apart from the airport.

Mount Etna is incredible, you will enjoy that.
I loved Catania but I can see why you feel that way- it is pretty grotty. There's a cool roman amphitheatre that's worth a visit but I'd give the beach a wide berth- really disappointingly dirty and lots of dead fish 🐟

Thank you everyone. I was in a bad mood when I posted, clearly! I appreciate all the suggestions and if we were here for longer would definitely have investigated those. I was just so dispirited by how dirty and littered the whole place is.

Out of interest, why are you staying in Catania? I mean, what made you chose it over Taormina, for example?

I didn’t choose it. DH buys us a trip away every Christmas and this was this his choice, for whatever reason.