It rises to over 3,000 meters above sea level, its diameter is about 45 km and occupies an area of 1,570 square kilometers: these are the numbers of Etna, the highest volcano in Europe which, since 2013, is UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But when we talk about the Etna, the coldness of the numbers is not as striking as the warmth of its majesty. In fact, Etna is one of the main elements that give the Sicilian territory its peculiar richness.

Located at the foot of the suggestive Mount Etna which often gives it a particular charm with its eruptions, Catania, overlooking the Ionian Sea, is a splendid city of art, an undisputed example of Sicilian Baroque and for this Unesco heritage together with the other cities of the Val of Noto.

Catania originates as a Sicilian settlement, refounded with the name of Kατάvη in 729 BC. by Chalcidian Greek colonists. In the 5th century BC it was occupied by the Syracusans, who baptized it Etna, it was then conquered by the Romans in 263 BC. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the city followed the fate of Sicily, being conquered first by the Ostrogoths, then by Arabs, Normans, Swabians and Angevins.

Shocked by the terrible eruption of Etna in 1669 and the disastrous earthquake of 1693, the city was almost entirely rebuilt at the beginning of the eighteenth century, according to the baroque taste of the time that characterizes all of south-eastern Sicily.

A few steps from the strait that separates Sicily from the Italian peninsula, on a natural terrace overlooking the Ionian Sea, stands the splendid Taormina, the ancient Tauromenion.

With its appearance of a medieval village, its ancient Greek soul, the colors and scents of the Mediterranean vegetation, Taormina is one of the most beautiful places to visit in the world. And the climate of Sicily makes it an ideal destination at any time of the year.

One cannot fail to be fascinated by the immense beauty of this place, as happened to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, when on his trip to Italy he visited the Greek theater (III BC), the symbol of the city.

Surrounded by cypresses and prickly pear plants, with the cavea carved into the rock, the Hellenistic theater of Taormina, transformed into an arena by the Romans, offers a spectacular view of the turquoise sea as far as the coasts of Calabria, the city of Syracuse and the steaming summit of Etna.

Lovers of history and art will find Taormina the ideal place to satisfy their passion.