Catania – The Jewel of the Ionian Sea

25.5.13 Crime in Mind and Action; A Dialogue between Psychoanalysis and the Law - [e-mail]|www.forensicpsychotherapy.com

CATANIA – The Jewel of the Ionian Sea

Founded in the 8^th Century BC by Chalcidean Greeks searching for a settlement near the fertile volcanic plains around the rivers Simeto, Lognina and Amenano, Catania has a history that is as eventful and rich as its volcanic heritage, its destiny inexorably intertwined with that of Mount Aetna, the giant volcano majestically watching over every step of its inhabitant and visitors.

Ruled by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French and Spaniards over the Millennia and destroyed at least 7 times by spectacular Seismic and Volcanic events, Catania’s history is the history of the Mediterranean civilizations itself and its dramatic interplay with Mother Nature’s wrathful vengeance. “Miliore de cinere surgo” [I will be reborn, more beautiful, from my ashes] says the inscription on one of the surviving gates to the historic centre (“Porta Garibaldi”).

Golden beaches lie to the south towards Syracuse and the lush lava-rocks coastline to the north.

Sicilian mountain villages and many more historical sites are all under one hour drive away, including the magnificent Taormina to the North and the white Greek Temples and amphitheatres of Syracuse to the South.

Catania is about the experience of living an authentic Sicilian city, still largely untouched by mainstream tourism.

Catania is a food-lovers’ dream - sundrenched produces, a passion for fresh fish and free-range meat, thousands of years of diverse influences and a near-delusional obsession with food, all seem to conjure to deliver you with a culinary experience that will be impossible to forget. Carluccio, Jamie Oliver and Giorgio Locatelli have been raving about it for some time and it’s not hard to see why: Sicilian cuisine resembles Italian with its deliciously predictable offering of pasta, risotto and pizzas in every shape and form but its Moorish and Spanish influences gives it a unique twist with a much greater use of herbs, spices, nuts and sweet and sour flavours.