San Lorenzo – Caltagirone

39th day

Caltagirone is the most flourishing town in the province of Catania. It is also called “Queen of the Mountains” because from the heights of its three hills there are spectacular views of the surroundings.
Upon arrival, we left Thorqui and Beast in the parking lot where we will sleep tonight, and after resting a bit and giving the town time to come to life, we walked over.

Today's route was especially beautiful because we crossed the green valleys of the center of the island surrounded by plateaus crowned by towns with reddish roofs that stand out against the green landscape.
The place today has no services (bathroom, electricity, water…) but it is monitored, which is what really matters to us when we want to go out and visit something and leave our little ones alone 😉.

The city is a maze of stairs, and according to what we have read, it consists of two parts, the upper and the lower… I assure you that getting from one to the other and back is really exhausting, but it is worth it. The earthquake of 1693 directly affected it, and it was rebuilt, which resulted in the vast majority of its buildings being late Baroque. It is declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Church and Convent of San Buenaventura is a Baroque-style religious complex founded in 1624, an icon of the city, although a bit neglected 😑.
Arriving at the center through those narrow streets, there comes a moment when the Santa Maria del Monte Staircase appears before you, with one hundred and forty-two steps that we climbed to reach the church of the same name located at the very top, along with the figure of El Tindaro, a huge bronze sculpture that crowns the staircase and contrasts greatly with the surroundings due to its modernity and has a marked symbolism for the city.
The Staircase was beautified in 1954 with colorful ceramics alluding directly to the “city of ceramics,” which is another name for the town.
In the cathedral, we find the reliquary that contains the remains of Saint Celestine Martyr, one of the many bodies found in the Roman catacombs that were given to different dioceses after their discovery.

It has been a very pleasant walk because Caltagirone is truly beautiful. We started wandering around looking for mortadella because we both craved it today. It turns out we haven't tried it since we arrived in Italy, which is curious because we both like it a lot.
Going up and down steps, we finally found a grocery store that had the typical one with pistachio, and we bought some to have for dinner. Tonight, a sandwich 🥪.
We were negatively impressed by how dirty everything was. In Sicily, they have the habit of leaving garbage bags at the doors of houses, and since there are many abandoned and hungry dogs and cats, they break them open, and all the trash ends up scattered on the ground around their homes. They live like in the Middle Ages in that aspect, and it doesn't seem to bother them.

The effort of climbing the final slope to get home was considerable, but we compensated for it with some toast with oil and mortadella that tasted like pure glory.
Good night… I’ll keep you posted 😘