On our first full day, we took a private guided walk around the city. We booked the tour with a company called LOKAFY, which is a booking service for local guides in many cities around the world. The concept is simple, and clever. The guide is not a professional guide, but a local person who enjoys showing their city to foreign tourists. The price is lower than the price you would expect to pay to a licenced guide, but our experience was very positive.

One of us (me) went to a concert in honor of Bellini at a lovely church right near the cathedral. The church is called Della Badia di Sant'Agata Church and is located literally across the street from the more famous Cathedral. They have a variety of concerts here, once or twice a week and mainly for tourists. I went to the “Bellini and Vivaldi's Four Seasons” concert.  This baroque church is lovely, and the musicians were very good, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert.
Saint Agatha is a popular name for churches in Catania, as she is the patron saint of Catania. The Festival of Saint Agatha is held in Catania twice a year and is one of the largest Catholic religious festivals in the world.

This restaurant, with the strange English language name was probably our favorite in Catania. It was very close to our hotel, and we had our first restaurant meal here in Catania. The place was almost empty, so we had the restaurant to ourselves.  It has quite a large menu. The food was great, and our waitress was entertaining, and lively, and we had a lot of fun here.
We had fish soup, oysters, and a very original dish of calamari au gratin.

This seemed like a simple local restaurant when we entered, but it was much more. The food was exceptional. When Alisa asked why there was no fish soup on the menu, the chef said “No problem!  I will make you fish soup"!  And that he did – a huge serving of fish and seafood with a bit of soup. I had the pistachio encrusted tuna steak, which was also excellent.
The service was personal and friendly, and the prices were reasonable.

This is a 1 Michelin star restaurant, with exceptional service and wonderful food. I dined alone because Alisa was suffering from her pinched nerve. This is the first time I have ever eaten alone in a Michelin star restaurant, so I was very curious as to how they would treat me. Happily, they treated me just fine and I had a great meal!
I had the “Origini” tasting menu, which is the middle level tasting menu between a shorter and a longer one. It had 7 listed courses, but of course, also had a few more little unlisted items which I couldn’t keep track of. I also took the wine pairing, and all the wines were excellent. The dessert wine was so good, that I searched it out at a wine store and brought a bottle home.
Everything was exceptional.

We rarely eat pizza in a restaurant, but because Alisa was stuck in bed at the hotel, I went out and brought some back to the hotel. Claudia, our guide recommended it and it turned out to be the best pizza I have ever had in Italy. The place is simple, the people friendly, and the pizza base and crust were absolutely fantastic. I walked here from our hotel in Catania, and brought the pizza back to our hotel, twice!
"Katane" was the name given to the city by the Greeks in the 3rd century.

This is the Palace Catania hotel restaurant. It was much better than I expected. The views are lovely, and the food was both elegant and tasty.The portions were quite small, but delicious. Here is where I had my only "Pasta alla Norma", which is the most famous pasta dish in Sicily. The restaurant's version was not the typical presentation, but it worked well, and I enjoyed it. Alisa fell in love with the minature zucchini and mushroom quiche pictured to the right.

There are several sites called Catania Underground, as the city has  has been rebuilt several times, and there are a myriad of undergound caves, and  lava flows. On tripadvisor, these sites have mixed reviews.

Obviously one of the main attractions near Catania is Mount Etna. There are many tours available, and a variety of forms of transportations, from trekking to jeeps to helicopters. You can also drive up by yourself, but only to a certain point, and then you need a licenced guide. We visited Etna on our last visit.

The wines grown on the slopes of Mount Etna are very unique, as the volcanic soil imbues them with unique characteristics. There are many wineries on the slopes offering tours, wine tastings, and some even offer offer Sicilian meals to go with the wines. You can book a visit privately, or with a tour company, or even order a tour which includes visiting Etna and a winery. In addition, there's also a winery you can visit inside Catania. It's called the Etna Urban Winery.
We booked a tour, tasting and lunch at Benante winery, which we unfortunately had to cancel.

The coastal area directly north of Catania is known as the "Cyclops Riviera". It's a beautiful coastal road which leads to 3 colorful fishing villages known as the  three Aci villages. They are Aci Castello, Aci Trezza and Acireale. You can drive up the Cyclops Riviera, or sail along the coast parallel to it. In any case, it's a lovely ride and the villages are well worth the visit, in particular, Aci Trezza. Aci Trezza is most famous for its "skyline", for wherever you are in Aci Trezza, looking towards the sea, you will see the majestic stacks of basalt collumns, known collectively as the Faraglioni.
We booked a tour with a company called Goinsicily, which included a drive on the Cyclops Riviera, a walking tour in Aci Trezzi, and a boat ride to a couple of islands. Unfortunately, we had to cancel this tour.