In 1669, as Etna’s lava ran down towards Catania, a priest from Pedara, don Diego Pappalardo, tried to divert it: wrapped in soaked cowhides, with some fifty men, he broke open the bank of the river of fire. It was the world’s first documented attempt to move a lava flow — and the people of Paternò, seeing it head their way, stopped him.
Twenty-four years later, on 11 January 1693, the Val di Noto earthquake brought the town down, and again it was Pappalardo who raised it: he rebuilt the mother church of Santa Caterina twice, today a basilica. The name, they say, comes from ad pedes arae, at the foot of the altar of Jupiter of Etna: the main street is corso Ara di Giove. There are 12,896 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Mary Most Holy Annunciate, patroness since the bishop's permission of 1388, Sunday 12 September
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 17 km away
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📅 Every year, on the second Sunday of September (minor observance on 25 March)
Pedara celebrates Mary Most Holy Annunciate on the second Sunday of September; her cult dates back to 1388, when the townspeople obtained permission from the bishop of Catania Simone del Pozzo to build the first church dedicated to her.
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo inside a golden cone-shaped crust: in Catania it is masculine and pointed, and the quarrel with Palermo over the name is serious.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
