Description
The underground Catania tour starts at the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre, a building that once seated about 15,000 people, and goes downward from there. A live guide leads you through the hidden side of the city, with entry to four underground places included.
- a prehistoric lava cave that shows what Etna's eruptions did to the ground under the city
- the underground course of the Amenano river, followed into a cave
- an ancient Roman monument you can walk through
- the unsettling secrets of a late Baroque church
Between one site and the next you walk above ground along Via Etnea, the long main street of the old centre, past aristocratic palaces and late Baroque churches. At the deepest point you are 15 metres below street level.
The tour lasts between two and a half and three hours and runs in English, Italian or French, rain or shine. Expect a few steps, some of them uneven: the tour is not suited to wheelchair users, to people with mobility problems or claustrophobia. If one of the sites is closed on the day, the organisers swap in another underground site. Hotel pick-up is not part of the tour.