A particularity of the province of Catania is the lava cliff called Timpa: a platform formed by superimposed lavas discharged

from Etna over the centuries and characterized by volcanic prominences. The whole area is by itself a truly unique nature
spectacle formed by a coast along which there stands out the tourist resort of Santa Maria la Scala, affording an opportunity to admire the typical colours of the Ionian sea.

The Timpa cliff and Acireale (CT)
How to get:
A18 Messina-Catania motorway, Acireale exit. From Catania about 17 km. From Messina about 86 km. As an alternative from Catania go along SS 114, which follows the coast. After about 20 Km you find Acireale.
The Timpa rises to over 100 metres and can also be admired by going in a canoe along its charming coast. One of the characteristic spots on the Timpa is without doubt the village of Santa Caterina, a hamlet of Acireale mainly known for its lookout point on the sea and for its splendid and solitary little beach. But the Timpa is only one of the stretches of the Ionian coast lying below Acireale, a town that enjoys the blue of the sea to the east and a superb vista of Etna with the north-western peak permanently snow-capped; it is a town that has a lot to show and to tell anyone visiting it in any period of the year. In antiquity, the town of Aci was already known for its thermal baths. Indeed, with the term xiphonie the Greeks referred to the first thermal constructions for the exploitation of the sulphurous waters from Etna. Subsequently the Romans built in the Santa Venera al
Pozzo locality a thermal plant still to be seen today. It was frequented throughout the Middle Ages and in the ensuing centuries, and in 1987 the Santa Caterina thermal complex began working, endowed with modern equipment and nice fittings that (in addition to the architectural patrimony, which reaches the highest expressions, not only in the sumptuous nineteenth-century palazzos but also in the splendid Baroque of the churches) make this town a capital of wellbeing. Also the capital… of granita!
The dessert based on ice and various essences, which here reaches “sublime” perfection, at Acireale is a rite to be performed calmly.

And if granita cannot be a souvenir, as a sweet memory of Acireale you can stock up with its almonds.
And if “laughter is the best medicine”, also the fun offered by the Aci Carnival will bring wellbeing. Here the carnival boasts a very old tradition, going back to the end of the sixteenth century, when it was already a very popular occasion and almost everyone took part in it.
One century later in the territory of “Jaci” (Aci) it was already in fashion to organize real battles with throwing of citrus fruits, and this game, if you can call it that, continued for long years before the local Criminal Court forbad it. The centuries passed and the Aci carnival was enriched with masks that satirically mocked notable citizens and the authorities; alongside these there were placed (in the nineteenth century) the landaus: noblemen that with their decorated carriages participated in the parades among the crowd throwing out sugared almonds. We can see in these noble parades the prodromes of the
Parade of Floats in one of the most beautiful carnivals in Sicily.

Photo by Cataniaan