Catania

Europe's most active volcano, with a bus climbing the south flank to Rifugio Sapienza. A cable car and 4x4s carry on to just below the top, and only a licensed guide may take you near the summit craters. Even in summer it is chilly up there; bring a jacket.

Every morning a fish market sets up down the steps behind the cathedral square, the sellers half singing their prices. Swordfish heads stand upright on the slabs, and the ground is always wet. It closes on Sunday and packs up by early afternoon.

The cathedral of Agatha, the city's patron, its front built of black lava mixed with white limestone. For her feast from 3 to 5 February, devotees in white haul her silver carriage round the city all night. The composer Bellini lies on the right inside.

A lava-stone elephant carrying an Egyptian-style obelisk stands mid-square before the cathedral. The architect Vaccarini gave it its current shape in 1736, and locals call it u Liotru. It is where everyone arranges to meet.

The main street heads arrow-straight north from the cathedral square, and on clear days Etna hangs at the far end. Halfway up, Villa Bellini is a terraced park where locals take their evening stroll, and a flowerbed spells out the date in plants.

One of Europe's largest Benedictine monasteries, where the lava of 1669 halted right at the wall. The university's humanities faculty uses it now, so you walk between lecture rooms with a guide. Underground they show house foundations buried beneath it.

A Roman theatre half buried in a residential block, with houses still sitting on top of its seating. Groundwater runs beneath the stage, leaving the floor standing in water. The small Odeon, a music hall, adjoins it.

Frederick II built it on a rock by the sea in the 13th century. The lava of 1669 filled in around it and pushed the shore back, so it now stands well inland in the city. It houses the civic museum, and set lava shows below its walls.

Black basalt stacks rise off a fishing village north of Catania, said to be the rocks the blinded Cyclops hurled at Odysseus. Verga set his novel The House by the Medlar Tree in this village. In summer many swim between the rocks.

An opera house named for Bellini, Catania's own composer, which opened in 1890 with his Norma. Red velvet and gilt boxes wrap the hall in four tiers. When nothing is staged, daytime guided visits take you round.

A short uphill street packed with baroque churches and convents, part of the UNESCO Val di Noto listing. The San Benedetto arch at its foot links two convents; legend says it went up in one night to beat a ban on building it.

The convent church facing the cathedral, designed by Vaccarini of the elephant fountain. Narrow stairs lead to a terrace ringing the dome, with Piazza Duomo, the rooftops and Etna beyond. It is the easiest viewpoint in town to reach.

A marble fountain at the southern corner of Piazza Duomo, by the steps down to the fish market. It is fed by the Amenano, a river running underground, and the overflow drops in a thin veil locals call bedsheet water. It dates from 1867.

A little fishermen's inlet on Catania's northern shore, with black lava rock instead of sand. In summer locals spread towels on the rocks and climb down ladders into the sea. Young crowds fill the waterfront bars in the evening.

Baroque town twenty-odd minutes north of Catania by train; three churches frame its cathedral square. It hosts one of Sicily's best-known carnivals, with huge floats of flowers and papier-mache. Below the coastal cliffs, small harbours sit in the lava rock.

An hour-plus south by rail, Syracuse's old centre occupies an island bridged to the mainland. The cathedral wraps a Greek temple of Athena; Doric columns bulge from its side wall. Papyrus grows in the Fountain of Arethusa on the west shore.