A visit to the fish market of Catania, Sicily

Sitting in the centre of the Piazza del Duomo in Catania, under the city's motif elephant, a mixed swish of water and vocal calls reach the ears, coming from the nearby fish market. Beyond the piazza's fountain, placed almost like a theatre curtain, opens a second piazza, that of Alonzo di San Benedetto, and it's here that the diversity of Catania's fresh seafood can be found.

Next to the ancient walls of the Palazzo dei Chierici and set around the Fountain of Seven Canals, a prized monument due to its survival through various local disasters, this place rich in history and tradition has not lost its customary habits. At the fish market work begins at dawn and the timid awakening of the sun as fishmongers set up shop and, a few hours later, local housewives arrive, the first in search of choice morsels.

Inside the market all is a series of old lava stone steps and tables loaded with the night's catch, especially the "pesce azzurro", bluefish, typical of Mediterranean waters. Market vendors, puffed with pride, display majestic swordfish, silver scabbards and telline, wedge shellfish of Catania's beaches. Never far away are the so-called masculine fish, the anchovies that enrich the taste of many Sicilian dishes.

At certain points the fishy smell abides and a waft of fresh, baking bread perfumes the air, cooked in the bakeries scattered ad-hoc amongst the market's streets. Stalls of fruit and vegetables are also abundant and their sale is accompanied by a classic Catanesi buzz, the sing-song manner employed by the vendors, with Arab touches and echoes of countries far afield.

Catania's fish market is a true pastiche of smells, flavours, colours and sounds, enough to satiate the senses, and an animated picture to fill the eye.