European
Experiences
Business Trips to Italy
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I have been to Italy
twice in 2000. Both trips were to Catania in Sicily. Catania is in the
shadow of the volcano Mt. Etna. Mt. Etna blows smoke just about every
day.
The Catania area is
known for beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean. The city itself
is filled with history. However traffic is terrible and many of the
structures in this city were not that appealing to me. I was surprised
to find the Catania does maintain a small Metro system with 4 stations
underground.
Two sites in Catania
did intrigue me. The first was the Roman Theatre. I was amazed that
this old roman ruin has "modern" houses built right into its
walls. The other ruin is a Roman Coliseum in the middle of downtown.
They unearthed it several years ago. Many buildings are built right on
top of its catacombs. The coliseum had been buried by of
Mt. Etna's
eruptions a long time ago. Other than that Catania was not my favorite
place to be.
I did some driving on
the few slack days that I had there. I drove up to Mt. Etna twice.
Both times it was covered by clouds, so I did not take the Tram ride
further up the mountain.
 Another
time I drove north along the coast to Messina. Here ferries take you
across the sea to the Italian mainline a short 10 km away. Messina
itself is not an impressive city, but they are building a light rail
system that will open in 2001(2)?
 My
favorite trip was to Toarmina. Spent the morning in a rocky cove
beach. In the afternoon I drove up the huge hill the
city center.
This town was very clean with  great
views up and down the coast. The highlight of the trip was touring the
old Greek Theatre. It overlooks the sea. A good portion is in ruins,
but the theatre is still used today for concerts.
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