Page 318 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

minuscule harbour full of painted fishing-boats, where three or four trattorias overlook

the bay. To get here on foot, go down Via Romeo (to the side of the Municipio),
across the busy main road and then down the steep rural path to the water.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ACIREALE

By bus Buses to Acireale from Catania (1–3 hourly) stop outside the public gardens
or near the Duomo.

By train Trains run regularly (1–2 hourly) between Acireale and Catania. The train
station is well to the south of town, near the thermal baths, and a long walk into the
centre along Via Vittorio Emanuele II.

< Back to Catania, Etna and around

Lentini

Half an hour or so south of Catania by road, LENTINI has a long pedigree that puts it
among the earliest of the Greek settlements in Sicily, and the first of all the inland
colonies. Established in 729 BC as a daughter city of Naxos, Lentini (Leontinoi)
flourished as a commercial centre for two hundred years, before falling foul of
Hippocrates of Gela. Later, the city was absorbed by Syracuse, sharing its disasters
but never its prosperity. It was Leontinoi’s struggle to assert its independence, by
allying itself with Athens, that provided the pretext for the great Athenian expedition

against Syracuse in 415 BC. Another attempt – this time an alliance with the
Carthaginians during the Second Punic War – resulted in the Romans beheading two
thousand of its citizens, a measure that horrified the whole island, as no doubt it was
intended to do. By the time Cicero got round to describing the city, Lentini was
“wretched and empty”, though it continued as a small-scale agricultural centre for
some time, until the great earthquake of 1693 completely demolished it.

Carlentini

Noisy, sprawling, modern Lentini has little to recommend it, and the extensive remains
of the ancient city are a few kilometres out of town and easier to reach from the upper
town of Carlentini, which itself has a fairly pleasant central square with a few bars.

Some of the finds from ancient Lentini are on display in the Museo Archeologico
(Tues–Sun 9am–6pm; €4), at Piazza Studi, east of central Carlentini off Via Piave.
However, the best artefacts have been appropriated by the museums at Catania and
Siracusa.

Zona Archeologica

Daily 9am–1pm • Free • The site is a 20min walk south of Carlentini; most Lentini buses also stop in Piazza San
Francesco on the outskirts of Carlentini, closer to the Zona Archeologica, as do local buses from Lentini’s train