Sicily Day 6 Catania (St. Agatha and a haircut)
Today we said goodbye to Taormina which was an interesting place, basically on the side of a mountain over looking the Ionian Sea. It had a wonderful and colorful atmosphere in many areas while remaining very cozy. Our hotel was amazing for the total price we spent, and this turned out to be a good follow up to Cefalu which unfortunately I regret leaving everyday, but the pilgrimage must move on. Taormina did a great job to help us overcome our withdrawal of our amazing family experience. Before leaving we decided to invest in the expensive breakfast experience at our hotel, and it exceeded our expectations. It was probably just as good as the one we experienced in Tuscany last year with a beautiful spread of local Sicilian favorites by the boatload.
From here we made our way to Catania for one night. We weren’t particularly fond of coming here, but for St. Agatha, I couldn’t say no, considering what so many people struggle with in the United States, her patronage would definitely be appreciated for others struggling. She is one of the 2 holy cards I produced, to touch to the tomb of Sicilian saints. For simplicity I put her together with St. Lucy who we will visit tomorrow. St. Agatha is also the patron of Sicily and Catania. She was martyred for her faith in the 3rd century during the persecutions. She is also credited with a miracle for St. Lucy’s mother. My only disappointment of visiting her tomb, is it was not only gated up with zero access but the image you see of her relics is no where visible, except on all the souvenir. This was disappointing for such a great icon of Sicily.
While we were waiting for St. Agatha’s church to open from siesta we had our first gelato fix of this time in Italy. We left this piazza and went to the former monastery which was the largest in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, it currently serves as a university. Continuing on our roaming of Catania we made our way to the port, where we detoured for a Sicilian haircut, Monica has been dying for me to get things trimmed up. Giuseppe gave me a wonderful experience with an old school feel to it barbershop style with a straight edge razor. He had total free reign as I like to do with all artist, and they never let me down with their creativity, although it baffles them at first. We finished up with a nice meal at local place my barber recommended and we had a night cap to finish off the night before walking back to our hotel.
To see more of the great food from the day and the many churches we crossed paths with that had inviting opened doors click here.
