Acireale

I had just one more day in Sicily so decided on a day trip to Acireale, about 20 km up the coast from Catania, so just a short train ride.

This is a fountain and pond outside Catania's main train station.

When I reached Acireale, I discovered that the new train station was about 1 km south of the old one, below the city and thus an uphill walk. But it wasn't too much trouble, I've done longer walks from stations.

This is the Collegiate Basilica of San Sebastiano. Acireale is full of churches, if one is interested in those.

What I found more interesting were the large displays of human likenesses. Sicily has an artistic tradition of depicting human heads, in Palermo they are done in pottery.

Here's another one, stepping out of a frame.

A couple more.

They seemed to be part of an upcoming celebration. That's the Santi Pietro e Paolo in the background.

The Cathedral of Acireale is just a few metres up Piazza Duomo. Three churches in close proximity, see what I mean about this being churches galore city?

A bit off the main piazza is the San Domenico.

Turning to secular things, these are the outdoor cafes on the piazza.

A side street with the rainbow flag.

A park with palms, but chairs not in use.

The art deco lettering of the Teatro Maugeri caught my eye. I can't find much information on it on the Internet. It gets poor reviews in Google Maps because it has been open only for short periods and is currently still under renovation. Oh well, this is Italy.

Acireale is near the coast but a highway separates it from the coast. So unfortunately there aren't many good views to the Ionian sea.

I did find a pedestrian bridge over the highway from which I took this view. It's possible to descend and walk to the sea but I felt it would be hard to top Taormina, so went back to Acireale.

Back in Catania this colourful mural on a building near my lodgings (a different one for a change) caught my eye.

And these are the last photos from Sicily. The next morning I caught a shuttle bus to the airport and flew to Rome from where I took a train to Livorno to catch the ferry to Bastia, Corsica the day after. So no more Sicily but a bit more Italy later.