Civita is the old maritime quarter immediately south of Piazza del Duomo, between Via Vittorio Emanuele and the harbour. It is the oldest continuously inhabited part of Catania, with a tight grid of narrow streets and the small church of San Cristoforo Minore at its heart.
The neighbourhood was hit hard by the 1693 earthquake and never quite rebuilt to the grand baroque standard of the streets just north. The result is more intimate: low buildings, peeling paint, washing lines, small grocers, and a feeling of village within a city.