Page 302 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Museo Diocesano and the Terme Achilliane
Piazza Duomo • Mon–Fri 9am–2pm, Sat 9am–1pm • Museum €7, Terme Achilliane €5 • 095 281 636,
museodiocensanocatania.com

To the right of the Duomo, the Museo Diocesano houses the cathedral’s collection of
religious art and silverware, with items dating back to the fourteenth century, including
pieces recovered from the pre-1693 cathedral. Beautifully presented as the museum is,
most people will find more appeal in the remains of the Terme Achilliane, Catania’s
Imperial Roman baths, which form part of the museum. They’re perhaps not quite as

alluring as they were in the days of eighteenth century French traveller Jean Houel,
who, discovering a hall covered with stuccoes of Cupids, vines, grapes and animals,
concluded that it must have been a Temple to Bacchus. Delightful as the idea of a
temple devoted to the most decadent of Greek gods might be, it’s pretty obvious that
the building was a baths complex, as testified by a huge marble pool in what is thought

to have been the Frigidarium. Originally stretching right across the piazza as far as the
Pescheria (where remains of the Caldarium were discovered), water was provided by
the River Amenano, which still flows below the city.

The Pescheria

Piazza Pardo and Piazza Alonzo de Benedetto • Mon–Sat, usually 7am–2pm

Catania’s best-known food and fish market, the Pescheria, is reached from the back of
Piazza del Duomo by nipping down the steps behind a gushing marble fountain. This
takes you right into the main part of the fish market, where vendors shout across slabs
and buckets full of twitching fish, eels, crabs and shellfish. Brandishing wicked-
looking knives, they slice off swordfish steaks to order, while others shuck oysters,

mussels and sea urchins for browsing customers. The side alleys off the fish market
are dense with fruit, vegetable and dried goods and herb stalls, as well as cheese
counters and bloody butchers’ tables.

Via Vittorio Emanuele II

On the other side of the Duomo, across busy Via Vittorio Emanuele II, the church of

Sant’Agata is another of Vaccarini’s works, though the lighter, pale grey Rococo
interior post-dates his death. A little further up the street, at no. 140, there’s the minor
curiosity that was the home of Catanese erotic poet and philosopher Domenico
Tempio (1750–1821). It’s now desperately neglected, though you can still make out

the raunchy figures of men and women playing with themselves, which support the
balcony above the blackened doorway.

Teatro Romano

Via Vittorio Emanuele II 260 • Daily 9am–6.30pm • Free