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Catania on Sicily, Italy kicks off our moderately ambitious 2017 Europe trip. The question was never so much why Catania as why not Catania. Our desire to see as much of Italy as possible, including the not-so-polished bits, without rushing, lead us to start this journey in the south and follow the sun as we slowly make our way north. Catania was therefore where our flight from Brussels was bound and we have three days to learn about this Sicilian city before we move on to more picturesque settings.

As for first impressions of Catania after only arriving this afternoon and basically wandering about, half-heartedly attempting to get lost, it is a city where advance or inside knowledge is helpful to the extent I’d call it required. Aimless wandering seems, at least at first blush, to only really get the fitbit excited. While our expectation was never that Catania (or anywhere on Sicily, for that matter) would be some artificial tourist haven, there are areas, less than 5-10 min walk from the main pedestrian street that is border-line derelict and at one point made Meredith uncomfortable to the point we had to turn right around and get back to less decrepit settings.

Tomorrow we shall approach this city with more purpose.

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