Catania

Catania is known for its seismic history, having been destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake in 1169, another in 1693, and several volcanic eruptions from the neighboring Mount Etna volcano, the most violent of which was in 1669.
Catania has had a long and eventful history, having been founded in the 8th century BC. In the 14th century and the Renaissance, Catania was one of Italy’s most important and flourishing cultural, artistic, and political centers, having witnessed the opening in 1434 of the first university in Sicily. Today, Catania is one of the main economic, touristic, and educational centers in the island, being an important hub of industry, thus gaining the nickname, “European Silicon Valley”.
Catania is located on the east coast of the island, at the foot of the Mount Etna.
The position of Catania at the foot of Mount Etna was the source, as Strabo remarks, both of benefits and evils to the city. On the one hand, the violent outbursts of the volcano from time to time desolated great parts of its territory; on the other, the volcanic ashes produced fertile soil, adapted especially for the growth of vines. (Strab. vi. p. 269.)
Under the city run the river, Amenano, visible in just one point, south of Piazza Duomo, and the river, Longane or Lognina.
All ancient authors agree in representing Catania as a Greek colony named Κατάνη (Katánē—see also the list of traditional-Greek place names) of Chalcidic origin, but founded immediately from the neighboring city of Naxos, under the guidance of a leader named Euarchos (Euarchus).
The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but it appears from Thucydides to have followed shortly after that of Leontini (modern Lentini), which he places in the fifth year after Syracuse, or 730 BC.