Hotels near Catania Fontanarossa Airport - CTA, Catania

Caatania is a great place to establish a headquarters for exploring the Etna area. Toaramina, Etna wine country, the fish market and history are all close if you are driving and getting through the city is somewhat easy if you embrace your inner Italian..

Shopkeepers and people are friendly. Food is remarkable if you ask a local for advise. The streets are dirty. Thousands of cigarette butts and plenty of litter. The city should take more care to present a welcoming view to visitors.

It is a medium-big city with little to no green areas, full of cars. The architecture is beautiful, but it is compensated by many difficult to navigate streets (cars parked on sidewalk, no sidewalks, piles of rubbish - most by design as it is supposed to be collected soon - full of speeding cars and motorbikes that do not stop for pedestrians or barely do it, general irregular road surface) and urban decay, which get worse and worse as you go away from the city center. It is however somewhat in line to other italian cities of same population density. In general huge traffic and noisy especially during rush hours (lunch break 12-14 and after work from 17). Luckily small quiet areas can be found e.g. near university area and Park Bellini. Food is tasty and with great variety (sweets, meat, fish, carbs, wines, etc) and cheap unless you go to upscale places for tourists, but still you will pay just a few euros more. I tried dozens of bars and restaurants and it was only good to excellent quality, never bad or scam. Bars and restaurants are scattered everywhere. There is a beach nearby but was a bit strenuous to reach by foot, including the walking along major roads with no sidewalk and the crossing of a major crossroad where the pedestrian streetlight very rarely turns green. Near the beach there is a nice pedestrian area and theoretically many establishments, but they were all closed and many looked closed for good, not only because it is off-season for italians (it is a pity, so much potential...). No big and famous museum. Enjoyed a nice temperature (20-24C) mid October, unfortunately some rain, but also lots of sun.

Not really much to do there. We stayed for three days and it was too long. We took a trip to Ortigia and Siracusa for one day. We probably should have stayed there instead. Everyone we spoke to that had been there before we got there, said they were disappointed and wished they had not stayed in Catania.

We loved the food, the walking, the history and the overall vibrancy of the city. Driving into the city via the airport was hectic but once we arrived with the rental car, we used taxis and transit…the only way to navigate a large city any where. The city was cleaner than I thought it would be. The markets and food were outstanding. The people were very friendly.

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.