The seaside town of Acicastello is among the most famous and sought after of eastern Sicily. It maintains a unique charm with its clear waters of the sea heaving themselves onto ridges of lava stone in the shadows of the Normancastle from which the town takes its name.

In the summer it is full of tourists and many people from the nearby city of Catania go there on holiday. The evenings are always alive and bustling, with numerous restaurants and bars, specializing in preparing delicious seafood dishes.

The Castle is situated on a ridge of lava, dominating the surrounding square. Originally it was built by the Normans in 1076 on promontory lava entirely surrounded by the sea: it was the lava flow of 1169 that connected it with the mainland. It became the home of important lords of the past and used as a military prison.

Today it houses the Civic Museum, divided into three different sections: Paleontological section, mineralogical section and archaeological section. Of particular importance are some examples of sea lava, the pillows, and blocks of spherical basalt which display radial fractures caused by the contact of magma with sea water.

Lastly, you can also visit the botanical gardens, in which there are a significant number of cacti plants.

Such characteristic as to inspire the Odes of Homer for his Odyssey, Acitrezza, a village of Acicastello, is a small, very charming fishing village. The landscape is dominated by the 8 faraglioni (volcanic stacks), and lava cliffs that where formed before Etna.

According to the myth of the Odyssey written by Homer, it was the Cyclops Polyphemus who hurled these large boulders at the vessels of Ulysses. Acitrezza also hosted the setting of the novel Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga, the most important of the Italian Verismo. To this day, the House of Nespolo still stands, the dwelling, in which the humble fisherman’s family lived.