European Experiences
Business Trips to Italy

I have been to Italy twice in 2000. Both trips were to Catania in Sicily. Catania is in the shadow of the volcano Mt. Etna. Mt. Etna blows smoke just about every day.

The Catania area is known for beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean. The city itself is filled with history. However traffic is terrible and many of the structures in this city were not that appealing to me. I was surprised to find the Catania does maintain a small Metro system with 4 stations underground. 

Two sites in Catania did intrigue me. The first was the Roman Theatre. I was amazed that this old roman ruin has "modern" houses built right into its walls. The other ruin is a Roman Coliseum in the middle of downtown. They unearthed it several years ago. Many buildings are built right on top of its catacombs. The coliseum had been buried by of Mt. Etna's eruptions a long time ago. Other than that Catania was not my favorite place to be.

I did some driving on the few slack days that I had there. I drove up to Mt. Etna twice. Both times it was covered by clouds, so I did not take the Tram ride further up the mountain. 

Another time I drove north along the coast to Messina. Here ferries take you across the sea to the Italian mainline a short 10 km away. Messina itself is not an impressive city, but they are building a light rail system that will open in 2001(2)?

My favorite trip was to Toarmina. Spent the morning in a rocky cove beach. In the afternoon I drove up the huge hill the city center. This town was very clean with great views up and down the coast. The highlight of the trip was touring the old Greek Theatre. It overlooks the sea. A good portion is in ruins, but the theatre is still used today for concerts. 

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