Hotels near Catania Fontanarossa Airport - CTA, Catania

Catania is a very pretty alive town. The city center is easy to walk, with lots of monuments ,interesting Catholic churches to visit, countless places with excellent food, not to mention the coffee stores and the sweets! Walk around and get lost in the small streets around, to discover quiet cute coffee/food stores. At the main street (via Etnea) you will find among others, plenty of stores of famous brands for shopping. People are nice and gentle. We felt safe at all the places we visited. Please note that Catania is stated in the middle of the East cost line, so you can use the train or the bus and easily visit Syracuse or Taormina (both strongly suggested). We visited on October 2025 so we can't give any advise for the beaches. PS If the mayor or the state decide to invest money and make a good renovation of the buildings, then city center would be really fantastic.

We did a walking food tour our first evening and it was really great way to see the center of the city, and find out more about the foods. We stayed for three nights but felt like we could have spent another evening, as we did a day trip to Siracusa and a day trip to Mt Etna/Tourmina so we didn't have enough time in Catania to appreciate it. That being said, many of the streets had graffiti on the walls as well as garbage on the sides of the streets, so it was not a clean city.

Unfortunately, my experience in Catania was quite disappointing. The city felt dirty and poorly maintained, with a lot of trash around the streets. It was hard to find good food, and many of the restaurants we tried were overpriced for the quality they offered. The city was also extremely noisy, both during the day and at night, making it difficult to relax or enjoy a peaceful walk. On top of that, the air felt quite polluted, and overall, I didn’t find Catania as charming or welcoming as I had hoped. Sadly, it didn’t live up to the beautiful image I had before visiting.

The city centre, with its magnificent square, was amazing! This contrasted with the huge stockpiles of rubbish we encountered in many places outside the city centre. This aspect was very disappointing.

We were in Catania for 2.5 days. it was a great base for doing excursions. The city was interesting and fun to walk around. The restaurant Nuova Trattoria Del Forestiero (near the Teatro Bellini) was exceptional, friendly and very good prices for dinner. The Comis Cafe was great for gelato and granita. The fish market and main duomo square were interesting and full of action.

Had amazing time in Catania, fantastic food and great wine. If you planning to travel it is super easy as bus connects you to lots of cities and villages around Catania. We didn't experience delays, the buses where clean and comfortable. Almost every restaurant we went food was fantastic but have to highlight tiramisu in Spaghetti and Co. We also visited food and clothes market it was great fun. Catania will surprise in very positive way i would definitely go back.