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Home > Travel Italy > Italy Destinations > Catania
Catania
Italy, officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica Italiana, is a Southern European country comprising of the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale, the boot or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola, the Peninsula.
Catania is the second largest city of Sicily and is the capital of the province which bears its name. With some 306,000 inhabitants it has the second highest population density on the island. The city's patron saint is Saint Agata. Catania is located on the east coast of the island, half way between Messina and Siracusa and is at the foot of the active volcano Mount Etna.
It was founded in the eighth century BC, Before Christ by Greek colonizers from Chalcis in Euboea led by Euarchos. It was extensively destroyed by earthquakes in 1169 and 1693 and by lava flows which ran over and around it into the sea. The first Sicilian University was founded there in 1434. The city has been buried by lava a total of seven times in recorded history, and in layers under the present day city are the Roman city that preceded it, and the Greek city before that.
In the late 1980s and 1990s Catania had a unique popular music scene with local radio stations. As a result of these idiosyncratic and regional radio stations Catania boasted a youth culture in which indie pop and indie rock from lesser known international bands like. As a result of the eclectic taste in indie pop and indie rock Catania has been the birthplace of a number of dynamic and unusual independent music record labels.
The city is the home of Amatori Catania rugby union team, and Calcio Catania football team. Catania has a commercial seaport in the city, an international airport to the South, a central train station on the main lines Messina-Syracuse, Catania-Gela and Catania-Palermo, as well as the privately-owned small-gauge Circumetnea railway which runs for 110 kilometers from Catania round the base of Mount Etna, attaining the height of 976 meters above sea level before descending to rejoin the coast at Giarre-Riposto to the North.
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