Sicily - Southern Italy - page 386

Syracuse (€6, 1¼ to 1½ hours, hourly Monday to Friday, fewer on weekends)
Taormina (€4.90, 1¼ to 1¾ hours, eight to 17 daily)
SAIS Trasporti ( 095 53 61 68; www.saistrasporti.it ; Via d'Amico 181) goes to:

Agrigento (€12.40, three hours, nine to 14 daily)

Rome (€49, 11 hours) Overnight service.
Its sister company SAIS Autolinee ( www.saisautolinee.it ) also runs services to:

Messina (€8.10, 1½ hours, hourly Monday to Saturday, 12 on Sunday)
Palermo (€14.90, 2¾ hours, hourly Monday to Saturday, 10 on Sunday)
AST ( 095 723 05 35; www.aziendasicilianatrasporti.it ) runs to many smaller towns around Catania,
inclusing Nicolosi (€2.50, 50 to 80 minutes, hourly) at the foot of Mt Etna.

CAR & MOTORCYCLE
Catania is easily reached from Messina on the A18 autostrada and from Palermo on the
A19. From the autostrada, signs for the centre of Catania will bring you to Via Etnea.

TRAIN
From Catania Centrale station on Piazza Papa Giovanni XXIII there are frequent trains.

Agrigento (€10.40 to €14.50, 3¾ hours)
Messina (€7 to €10.50, 1¾ hours, hourly)

Palermo (€12.50 to to €15.30, three to 5¾ hours, one direct daily)
Syracuse (€6.35 to €9.50, 1¼ hours, nine daily)

The private Ferrovia Circumetnea train circles Mt Etna, stopping at towns and villages on
the volcano's slopes.

Getting Around

Several useful AMT city buses ( 095 751 96 11; www.amt.ct.it ) terminate in front of the train sta-
tion, including buses 1-4 and 4-7 (both running hourly from the station to Via Etnea) and
Alibus 457 (station to airport every 30 minutes). A 90-minute ticket costs €1. From mid-
June to mid-September, a special service (bus D-Est) runs from Piazza Raffaello Sanzio to
the local beaches.
For drivers, some words of warning: there are complicated one-way systems around the
city and the centre is pedestrianised, which means parking is scarce.