CULTIVATIONS
If the statement that every tree, every flower and every fruit is a miracle of nature is true, then multiplied inside cultivations they must stir great passion. Then if numerous different varieties of flora are found in the same territory the wonder touches the greatest of heights.
The province of Catania covers an area that extends from sea to mountains, from an altitude of 0 metres above sea level to the over 3,000 metres of Mt. Etna, from Sicily's eastern cost to its internal zones, therefore it is a territory that is adapt to different plantations.
Primarily the volcanic zone offers admirable examples of variety. A particular characteristic of this area is the mixture of urban areas and farms marked by the almost total absence of clear boundaries between inhabited and cultivated areas.
The cultivated landscape on the slopes of the volcano, below 1,000 metres (a.s.l.), no longer forestall areas, is made up of an easily discernable typology of areas.
Apart from the areas covered by hardened lava, barren and uncultivable lands, there are lands of old cultivable lava, with isolated woody cultivations like olives, carobs, apple-trees, pear-trees, filberts and pistachios, particularly the latter are found in the area around Bronte.
Generally, this type of cultivations are found in a natural state and without any particular regulation.

At a lower level, just above the inhabited centres and on the Ionic coast, there is a concentration of irrigated lands, where citrus trees and vegetables grow profusely thanks to the use of traditional ancient irrigation canals called "saja". This word has Arabian origins and indicates conducts built with the same clay shingles used to cover roofs.
Lemon, orange and tangerine trees, evergreen with their perfumed orange-blossoms, dominate the landscape.

A particular story is connected to wine production. In the 19th century, the creation of wine was stimulated thanks to an increase in demand that together with the Bourbon Agrarian Property Reform lead to the creation of a modern agrarian middle-class capable of producing large quantities of wine.
Therefore, besides the transformation of cultivated lands, the massive planting of vineyards changed the area's landscape even because the cultivators discovered that the terracing of the area rendered vineyard cultivation easier. There is the birth of an important residential urbanization diffused all over the volcano's slopes, thanks to the popularity of wine-grape cultivation, by both great landowners and simple, small farmers, complete with millstones and cellars (buildings where the operations of pressing and fermentation of wine take place).

Also the Piana of Catania, Sicily's biggest plain, crossed by the Simeto River and enclosed by the Erei Mountains, Mt. Etna and the Ibleo plateau, has undergone several transformations throughout time.
The canalization of the waters and consequently the drainage and improvement of the surrounding land in the 1930s caused the abandonment of extensive cereal growing and transhumant breeding and lead to the cultivation of citrus orchards and various fruits and vegetables.
Another characteristic landscape is that of the "Calatino," still today characterized by vast woodlands, a large amount of water where cereals, almond trees and olives abound.

(edited by Ufficio stampa della APT di Catania)

More about nature in the Province of Catania