The Catania coast: from Simeto to Alcantara

The 70 kilometres of coastline offer a surprising variety of features. Our visit starts at the mouth of the River Simeto, which rises on the slopes of Serra del Re in the Nebrodi Mountains and fed by the waters of the Saracena Creek runs for about a hundred kilometres to reach the Ionian Sea some 12 kilometres south of Catania.
From here to the harbour of Catania, the Playa beach stretches for almost 9 kilometres. At the mouth of the River Simeto is a nature park that covers an area of ponds, channels and marshes that provide a protected reservation for many species of birds, migratory and otherwise. The scenery is unspoilt, with broad expanses of golden sands, dunes and a crystal-clear sea. This is the last extremity of the Playa, accessible by road and then by foot, and a favourite bathing place for the inhabitants of Catania. The Playa is well served by public transport, and has numerous beach centres as well as public beaches and pleasant holiday villages.
A few metres off the beach, old fishermen wade in the water, using the "ingegnu", a triangular rake fitted with a net, to sift the shallows for mussels and cockles, which traditionally are eaten raw so that the full flavour of the Ionian can be savoured.
Behind the beach is a long grove of pines that covers an area of almost 34 hectares.
The sandy beach terminates at the harbour of Catania, to the north of which is the Armisi, a cliff of rocky lava that runs from the harbour to the city's main railway station.
The tall chimneys of Catania's old sulphur-works can still be seen. These flourished in the 19th century, when the city was one of Sicily's main industrial centres.
At the foot of the chimneys, a gigantic piece of black lava can be seen from the direction of the sea, worn down to a smooth and rounded form by the action of the waves. This stone is a dual tribute to the sea and to volcano of Mount Etna, and was located here as a part of the Cultural and Exhibition Centre in Via Africa designed by architect Giacomo Leone. Passing this rare germ of Catania's industrial archaeology, we see bathing centres lining the rocks that lead from Piazza Europa to the old fishing village of San Giovanni li Cuti, which has a beach of dark volcanic sand and lava pebbles wedged between rocky cliffs.
Further along the coast, after the black rocks of Rotolo we reach the fishing village of Ognina, once the natural harbour of Catania and according to Roman historian Pliny the place where Ulysses landed. The harbour is used by leisure craft and the local fishing fleet, which organizes an annual festival dedicated to the theme of seafood. A particular species of seaweed that attrcted king prawns and bream in great numbers once grew off the coast of Ognina. Altough this seaweed has now disappeared, there are still excellent opportunities for offshore angling.
Embarking at Ognina, we sail across a cobalt-blue sea, and after passing the ruins of the 16th-century watch tower, a series of seven caves can be seen on the coast. Then comes the turreted castle of Aci Castello, a Norman fortress erected in 1076 on an impregnable outcrop of rock made up of a conglomeration of massive basalt globes, towering sheer above the sea. The castle now houses the local civic museum, the collections of which include a large section devoted to minerals.
A legend narrates that the young shepherd Acis fell in love with the nymph Galatea, who pursued by the Cyclops Polyphemus, had taken refuge in the castle. Polyphemus slew Acis, but the sea-god Neptune, deeply moved by this episode, turned the body of Acis into a river that ran into Galatea, transformed into the sea.
To the north of Aci Castello, off the town of Aci Trezza, the scene of a novel by Giovanni Verga and a film by Luchino Visconti, is a trace of the Odyssey, of Ulysses' long journey back to Ithaca and of the wrath of the Cyclops Polyphemus: tha Ciclopi Islands, tall pillars of rock jutting out of the sea, with nearby the islands of Lachea, now a nature reserve of great geological interest.
The sea is an enchantment, and its bed a paradise for fish and for many species of seaweed, sponges and corals.
The Sant'Anna lighthouse tower, built in the second half of the 16th century from lava blocks, is still in excellent condition, and after this is another tower that is partly in ruins, a defensive tower that marks the promontory of Capomulini, another magnificent bathing resort, liberally scattered with shore-side restaurants offering a plentiful selection of mussels, seaurchins and other shellfish, as is the rest of the coast right up to the Alcantara Gorge.
If Catania is Queen of Baroque on the Ionian coast, then Acireale, just 15 kilometres to the north, must be acknowledged to be the Princess, lying regally overlooking the sea, perched on a high terrace of lava.
Seen from the sea, this terrace rises like a green cliff, a rocky ridge reflected in the crystalline waters of the Ionian, a wall of ancient lava resting on an aquatic pedestal, a bundle of Mediterranean greenery immersed in the sea to be kept fresh.
The tall cliff with a height of over 140 metres runs parallel to the sea for 7 kilometres, starting at Capomulini and continuing with the cliffs of Don Masi, Santa Caterina and Santa Maria la Scala, ending beyond Santa Tecla. The cliff is composed of sediment from at least two major volcanic eruptions, and its vegetation includes lentisks, nettle trees, oleasters and carob. The lava is coloured orange by springwater rich in iron, forming a stream that runs into a tiny bay, a frequent anchorage for leisure yachts.
A cathedral of lava by the sea blends with the bastions of the 17th-century fortress of Tocco, which can hardly be distinguished amid the terraces of volcanic lava.
Our journey next brings us to the delightful Santa Maria la Scala, a small fishing village that stands round a 17th-century church at the foot of the cliff. Once used as a harbour by numerous merchant ships from places like Trapani, Malta and Lipari, traces or the original port and the old castle can still be seen.
Small as these places may be the pleasure they give is immense. Santa Tecla, not as might be thought of Christian origin but from the Arabic "Sciant Tagla", meaning a harbouring place, has the remains of a tower. Then in close succession come Scillichenti, Stazzo with the ruins of its old trading port, where lava stone was loaded for export, and Pozzillo, with a harbour and a spring rich in minerals.
These tiny fishing villages line the coast, interspersed with hotels of the highest quality, a prelude to the northerly beaches of Riposto and Torre Archirafi, scattered with rounded reefs. Lobsters are fished plentifully here, as can be see from the buoys marking the lobster pots near the harbour mouths.
Riposto, where goods were stored before being shipped away from the islands, has a pebble beach, and a future vocation as a leisure marina, from the shipbuilding centre and important trading port that it once was, when wine and citrus fruits were shipped out, and later sulphur.
The harbour of Riposto is held to be second only to that of Catania on the Ionian riviera, and a highly feasible destination for nautical tourism do, with its exceptional underwater vegetation, followed by the resort of Cottone, also popular with campers, and the coast of Calatabiano, with the San Marco Castle, a fortified residence built at the end of the 17th century and set in the opulent greenery of a pine wood that also accomodates a campsite, beach facilities and a country holiday centre. These are the last outposts of the riviera of Mount Etna before the River Alcantara is reached, an open invitation to be explored with passion.

 

Provincial Tourism Board of Catania
http://www.apt-catania.com
E-mail : apt@apt-catania.com