Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants (752,895 in the Metropolitan Area) it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy. Catania is known to have a seismic history and past, having been destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake in 1169, another in 1693, and several volcanic eruptions from the neighbouring Mount Etna volcano, the most violent of which was in 1669.
Catania has had a long and eventful history, having been founded in the 8th century BC. In the 14th century and the Renaissance, Catania was one of Italy’s most important and flourishing cultural, artistic and political centres, including having witnessed the opening in 1434 of the first university in Sicily. Today, Catania is one of the main economic, touristic and educational centres in the island, being an important hub of the technological industry, thus gaining the nickname of the “Sicilian Silicon Valley”.
Today, Catania, despite several problems, has one of the most dynamic economies in the whole of Southern Italy. Despite it still has a strong industrial and agricultural sector, is has a fast-growing tourist industry, with several international visitors coming to visit the city’s main sights and the nearby Etna volcano. It contains the headquarters or important offices of companies such as STMicroelectronics, and also several chemical and pharmaceutical businesses. There have been several new business developments to further boost Catania’s economy, including the construction of Etnapolis, a huge and avant-garde commercial centre designed by Massimiliano Fuksas, the same architect who has designed the FieraMilano industrial fair in Milan, or the Etna Valley, often compared to being the Sicilian version of California’s Silicon Valley, where, especially in the 1990s, several major TNCs, or transnational corporations set up important headquarters or offices. Nearby, just 12 kilometres from the city, is the Parco Zoo di Sicilia, or commonly known as Etnaland, a big theme park, which contains a zoo, swimming pool, aquatic centre and several rides, which is the largest of its kind in Southern Italy and attracts thousands of tourists, not only from Sicily, but also from Calabria and Apulia.
