Catania, five weekends for Le Vie dei Tesori

A completely unknown Roman tomb, art shops, secret galleries, crypts and caves, jewel museums, churches and the picture gallery of the Metropolitan City. The fifth edition of the Vie dei Tesori has kicked off in Catania, which will continue until 30 October. The experiences are also varied: from the shipwrights of the past to the cultivation of Japanese mushrooms in lava caves, from tropical gardens to rural hillside experiences, to the ecopark populated by alpacas and many other animals.

Big news of the year, an agile and functional App, downloadable for free, where you can get all the information to experience the festival, buy coupons, have real-time notifications onlast minute. Cinque weekend, so, for a new festival of "reappropriation of beauty", who tries to shake off post-pandemic restrictions and fears.

THE PROGRAM

Between noble palaces and churches, Catania is ready to show off. They will be there cinque weekend to descend into the cavities formed by the lava under the city, like in the Amenano cave or entering the Catanese Historical Society, where you will discover the "room of the kings" with documents from 1816 to the post-war period. From the church of Santa Chiara, where Verga set “The Story of a Blackcap”, we will move on to Santa Maria di Gesù, which is a treasure chest of precious works of art. Don't miss the Madonna with child by Antonello Gagini and the triptych by Antonello da Saliba. From the Bastion of the Infected commissioned by Charles V, which housed a seventeenth-century lazaret, to the Ursino castle built by Frederick II which has resisted every calamity. The Bellinian Museum returns after some time in the year in which the great Catania composer is celebrated.

The golden hands: those of historical puppeteers, the Napoli Brothers who will open their laboratory; and the others, by master Alfredo Guglielmino who creates impalpable paper delicacies at the Cartura workshop. At the Bonajuto Chapel they will tell you about how Houel fell under the Byzantine charm, in the crypt of Sant'Euplio, the story of the Christian martyr. Then Palazzo Asmundo di Gisira became a charming hotel, Restored Palace of Culture, the Ardizzone Gioeni Institute with its neo-Gothic cloister and a small church with strange mosaics. Villa Manganelli with its Art Nouveau references designed by Basile. We return to admire the brazen references to the Florentine Renaissance of Palazzo Scuderi Libertini.

And a surprise awaits those who decide to visit the former EGA footwear industry, 850 square meters, on three levels in Deco style: a secret passage leads to the small Dusmet theater where Pippo Baudo made his debut, Pippo Pattavina, Leo Gullotta, Turi Ferro and Tuccio Musumeci. The Metropolitan City Art Gallery is also being added in progress.

THE EXPERIENCES

Experiences are the strong point of the festival, a way to take back the space, dedicating time to yourself. In the city, we will visit for the first time a Roman tomb from the Republican age that emerges from a garage under a complex of former tenement houses built in the postwar period right on an ancient necropolis. You will also reach Piazza Scammacca, the first metropolitan market in the city, urban redevelopment and land recovery project.

There are also routes by sea - to try the seabed with an expert diver, discover the ancient art of Rodolico boat builders in Acitrezza, or sailing watching Ognina. You will be able to discover a corner of paradise on the lava (the Paternò Park) in Sant’Agata Li Battiati and lead a sensory journey among rare tropical and subtropical plants. It's still, visit an exotic park nestled among ancient artifacts in Mascalucia or discover the sustainable vegetable garden and organic orchard of Stanze in fiore. Or get lost among contemporary art installations and natural beauties at the La Verde La Malfa Foundation in San Giovanni La Punta. And again the rural experience in Trecastagni where the unobtainable Donnavita will be tried, the liqueur of Etna; the "collector" and narrator of hazelnuts from Linguaglossa.

THE WALKS

There are four walks: we will retrace the history of the great lava flow that destroyed Mascali in 1669; you will reach the eruptive vents on the south side of Etna; Trecastagni will be discovered with an urban trekking and the different films that have chosen Viagrande as their set will be sewn.

Gives Villa Maria you can easily reach Catania by car and by train (the railway station is just a few meters away) in about 20 minutes.