Everyone who wanted the Mediterranean took this island first, and each of them left the building they were proudest of. A Greek theatre at Taormina still uses the volcano as its backdrop. Catania was rebuilt in black and white lava stone after the 1693 earthquake, and Ortigia — the old island of Syracuse — is a stone maze you cross in twenty minutes and remember for years.
Three layers stack in the same street here: a Greek wall, an Arab plan, a baroque façade on top.
Guides who know the archaeology are worth more than any ticket queue — the stones do not explain themselves.
Most of it is within an hour of the volcano, which means a morning up the mountain and an afternoon in a theatre is one day.
The catalogue is open but still being filled, one business at a time, by hand. If you run something around Etna, this is the moment to be among the first.