Aci Trezza

A small, numbering approx. 5,000 of inhabitants village in Italy, in Sicily, 12 km northeast of Catania , between Aci Castello and Acireale , located on the coast of the Ionian Sea, opposite the group of so-called Cyclopean Islands (Isole dei Ciclopi) (➤ map)(➤ map). Access from Catania via the SS114 road.

The city was founded at the end of the 17th century by Stefano Riggio, who had owned other towns in the Catania region since the middle of the century (including today's Aci Sant'Antonio, Aci San Filippo and Valverde). Aci Trezza was the main fishing port and commercial center of the Riggio family until 1812, when feudalism was officially abolished in Sicily.

Today, Aci Trezza is a popular tourist destination, with an extensive accommodation and catering infrastructure, famous for its beautiful location opposite the so-called Cyclopean Islands (Isole dei Ciclopi) - groups of characteristic basalt rocks protruding from the sea, the same ones used by the cyclops Polyphemus to throw at the escaping Odysseus (hence the name). The entire complex is now a nature reserve; there is an oceanographic station on the largest of the Cyclopean Islands, called Isola Lachea. The smaller ones, also known as Faraglioni dei Ciclopi (Cyclopean Rocks), are the main tourist attraction and a peculiar beach of Aci Trezza; water sports are practiced nearby.

• In Aci Trezza, an important novel by Giovanni Vergi (1840-1922) I Malavoglia (The Malavoglia Family) is set in Aci Trezza - Luchino Visconti directed its film adaptation, La terra trema. Verga was also the author of the short story Cavalleria rusticana (Chivalry of the villager), which was the basis for the libretto of Mascagni's opera of the same title.