02 Jul - 29 Jul 2002 Catania

Mediterranean Sea
Southern Ionian Sea
Italian Republic
Sicily
Catania
NIC Yacht Club +39095531178
SY "Kamu II" with her stern to the pier and a permanent bow mooring.
€ 21.- per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our marina berth:
N 37° 30.04' E 015° 05.86'

Mediterranean Sea
Southern Ionian Sea
Italian Republic
Sicily
Catania
Commercial Harbour
SY "Kamu II" alongside the breakwater.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2002 Map

Exploring the city of Catania (motto: "Melior De Cinere Surgo" or “I Arise Better From My Ashes”) mainly built from dark volcanic rock and located at the foot of the active volcano Mt. Etna (which was the source of both benefits and evils to the city: (i) for on the one hand, the violent outbursts of the volcano from time to time desolated great parts of its territory; (ii) on the other, the volcanic ashes produced a soil of great fertility, adapted especially for the growth of vines) and tasting the genuine Sicilian slush puppy aka granite which was invented in Roman times when runners brought the natural ice from the glaciers of Mt. Etna down into Catania.

Taking a guided walking tour around the Fontana dell’Elefante, the symbol of the city of Catania, assembled in 1736 CE by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini and made of marble, portraying an ancient elephant (Vaccarini's original elephant was neuter, which the men of Catania took as an insult to their virility, and to appease them, Vaccarini later appended appropriately elephantine testicles to the original statue) and recognising the various distinctive layers of the city which had been totally buried by lava a few times in recorded history.

Visiting the 2nd-century BCE Greek-Roman theatre whose remains are located beneath Piazza Doumo, browsing through the vast number of historical churches in the baroque city centre (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and listening afterwards to Vincenzo Bellini's (son of Catania and born here in 1801 CE) operas in our cockpit and rolling in the delicious Catanese Pasta a la Norma (which is cooked with aubergines and topped with ricotta salata) in order to relax from the cultural intensity of the city.

Watching the big Grimaldi Lines and TTT Lines passenger ferries entering and leaving frequently the relatively narrow commercial harbour and admiring the great display of excellent seamanship.

Matt: Taking the long-distance bus from Catania/Italy to Leipzig/Germany for € 89.- (one-way ticket), visiting his family in Saxony and some of his friends in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland and flying back from Leipzig/Germany to Catania/Italy with Air Berlin for € 125.- (one way).