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 Standing
in the shadow of Mount Etna, Catania is a city of lava. A bustling port
opening onto the Ionian Sea, Catania is called the "city of black and white."
White plaster and marble and black lava are the main components of its
architectural adornment.
Catania is the second-largest city in Sicily, with a population of 380,000.
It's a lively place, and the seat of a bishop and a great university. In
diference to its hometown boy, Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), Catania boasts
one of Italy's grandest opera houses, where you can hear the operas and the
eternal "arias" of this amazing composer.
There is no greater symbol of Catania -a city wiped off the map at least
seven times- than the hideously ugly but endearing puce-colored elephant in
front of the Duomo. It's made entirely of lava spewed from Etna. Somehow
this tough little elephant is an appropriate mascot for Catania itself. By
its very toughness, it symbolizes the city's ability to bounce back from one
disaster after another, or even to create art from the lava that destroyed
it.
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