Best Western Hotel Mediterraneo, Catania

Advantages: Very comfortable beds
Disadvantages: Location, Poor room service

...almost deserted in the evening once everyone had come home from work. I think in hindsight I would have been better staying in Taormina as walking round Catania wasn't that pleasant, as it seems to spend most of the day gridlocked with traffic belching out fumes....

bindie 09.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Best Western Hotel Mediterraneo, Catania

In the shadow of Etna

Advantages: The Volcano, the food, the black beach
Disadvantages: the horse meat stall in the market (don't buy anything from a butchers with a cute photo of a horse outside!_

...Catania lies on the eastern coast of Sicily and is, historically and culturally a part of the 'Greek' part of the Island (as opposed to the arabic West of Sicily). The most striking thing about the city is the constantly puffing, and frequently erupting volcano which colours (sometimes quite literally) the city in a magical manner. Some people don't have the temperament for Sicily, the cities here don't have the manicured edges of Tuscany or the Emilian hills, but can provide far more beauty and exhiliration than any other part of Italy. So Catania itself takes a little getting used to. It doesn't have the beauty of Syracuse and Palermo probably has more immediate attractions in it. It has a fine Sicilian Baroque architectural style, best seen around the Piazza del Duomo with it's famous elephant statue - the symbol...

womble 09.06.2004 · Read review
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Review of Catania (Italy)

One Scary Sicilian Town

Advantages: See opinion
Disadvantages: See opinion

...Writing about my experience on a day trip to Catania could prove cathartic. There'a also a chance that it won't and at some point I'll run screaming from the computer to seek solace elsewhere and sleep with the lights on for a week. Quite a few personal nightmares converged in the one place, on the one day and if you want to hear about them, pull your chair a little closer to the monitor, and I'll begin. Whilst on an out of season holiday in Malta, we made a last moment decision to take a day trip to Sicily. The price was reasonable, plus an up-grade to first class was only £10 extra, and the Catamaran, The Virgin Butterfly, looked at right tasty little number on which to travel. I'm not comfortable being on the sea and so being told that this was the quickest way to get there, I decided that it'd be okay, just as long as it was...

Salgirl 30.04.2001 (28.04.2001) · Read review
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Review of Catania (Italy)

Don't stay at Liberty, very dangerous area

Advantages: near city centre
Disadvantages: very dangerous area

...Catania is a rough city in Sicily and the Liberty Hotel is in a bad area of the city. I tried to stay there but was carjacked right outside the Liberty Hotel!!! A man blocked the road while his team of thieves opened my car doors and stole our bags. Because of this incident, I drove off and didn't stay at the hotel that night. My girlfriend was terrified. When I told the hotel about this incident, they would not refund my money for that night. The manager said it was not his fault that I was robbed and that I should have stopped at the hotel to "discuss what happened" even though the hotel was a few feet from where I was robbed!!! That is the craziest thing I have ever heard. Pathetic how bad their customer service is. Please do not stay at the Liberty Hotel. I don't like supporting people that profit on other's misfortunes...

trickypines 15.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Liberty Hotel, Catania

Mt Etna - Risky but great adventure

Advantages: Nice weird landsape, nice view to catania and to the main crater!
Disadvantages: Risky because of the toxication possibility

...As far that there is no adventurers review i have to write my experiance about my trip to Etna with my wife. We were by can on the island Sicili and first we have seen was Ethna. It was about 30 degrees down, clima was turned on and we have seen huge black - absolutely black mountain with snow! I decided that we must visit it. we have driven to the parking place above Catania, which is about 1900 meters high if i remember well. We paid cheap parking fee and wanted to go up. There is a transport from parking place - a cable car. It is a bit expensive - about 20 euro per person and since nobody was walking under the cable car i decided that it is not so bad option. We were walking on the ski slope up. The surface was not an easy terrain since there are a bit large black stones. If you are walking you will be able to see old...

hauran 21.10.2007 · Read review
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Review of Mount Etna, Catania, Sicily

Lucky

Advantages: Roam freely in quite a moody volcano
Disadvantages: You may require brown pants!!!!

......

jtamagnini 25.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Mount Etna, Catania, Sicily

Marvellous Etna

Advantages: out of thi world landscape
Disadvantages: tourist shops

......

annetortue 04.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Mount Etna, Catania, Sicily

Blood and Sand

Advantages: Good characterisation, writing and descriptions of Sicily.
Disadvantages: Poor plot.

...at evoking place. When I read Dead Lagoon, set in Venice, it was a detective story and a travel book rolled into one. In this book Zen is based in the three-thousand-year-old city of Catania on the east coast of Sicily and in the shadow of Mount Etna. There are some wonderful word pictures of the city and the island, but I think the one that will stay with me the longest is of Zen sitting outside in the dark, looking at a blood-red slash across the sky and realising that it was the lava streaming down the side of the erupting volcano. I liked too the descriptions of the stretches of motorway unconnected to any road which had been built in the south of the island - and of the dubious land deals which led to their construction. There's dramatic landscape and human poverty and corruption all rolled into one. If I had to be picky I'd have liked...

SueMagee 20.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Blood Rain - Michael Dibdin

Taormina, Sicily

Advantages: historicaly interesting, prety town, great views
Disadvantages: long train journet from Palermo

...navigated from the main drag of shops and restaurants. Typically for Italy there is a vast range of prices. This can also be quite a touristy town so it worth picking your restaurant carefully as quality sometimes suffers as a result of the high demand. If you like shopping there is a good range of shops from clothes and leather shoes to a myriad of shops selling local ceramics with very distinctive patterns. Again there is a vast range of prices so it is worth shopping around as you could find the same items in several different shops. If you only have a short time in Sicily I would recommend visiting Taormina from Catania rather than Palermo, but if you have a little longer then it is well worth stopping in Taormina for a few days to take in the atmosphere. There are plenty of hotels centrally located to choose from. We found a charming B...

Leveritt 09.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of Taormina, Sicily

a rocket shot from kaka

Advantages: everything
Disadvantages: injury prone

...of the Year. In his 5th season, the 07-08 season, He played his 200th career match for A.C Milan in an unsatisfactory 1-1 home draw with Catania on September 30 but kaka continued to shine and terrorise the Catania defence in that match with exquisite skills, pin point passing and thunderbolt shots. On the 5th October 2007, he was presented the FIFPro World Player of the Year 2006-07 ahead of the likes of cristiano ronaldo and Lionel messi. On December 2nd, 2007, Kaká became the eighth ever A.C Milan player to win the prestigious French magazine award the Ballon D'or amazingly he finished with a staggering 444 votes, long way in front of second place Cristiano Ronaldo. He signed a contract extension all the way to 2013 with A.C Milan on 29th February 2008. So far in his 6th ,season the 08-09 season, he has scored 5 goals,1 against...

babesmagnet 13.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of Kaka