City guide
Fishing village of about 5,000 people on the lava coast 9 km from Catania, facing the Faraglioni dei Ciclopi and the setting of Verga's I Malavoglia.
Photo: Vincenzo Miconi · CC BY-SA 4.0
Aci Trezza is a frazione (district) of Aci Castello with 4,949 residents at the 2011 census, about 9 km from Catania. Around forty fishing boats work from its harbour, and just offshore stand the basalt Faraglioni dei Ciclopi and Isola Lachea, inside the Isole Ciclopi marine protected area (a marine reserve since 1989). Giovanni Verga set I Malavoglia (1881) here, and Luchino Visconti filmed La terra trema in the village in 1948.
There is no sandy beach: you swim from volcanic rock platforms, in free areas or at paid lidos. AMTS bus 534 runs from Piazza delle Scuole to Catania's central station and Piazza Borsellino, and line 434, launched at the end of August 2026, adds 21 weekday runs via Ognina. There is no classic coworking with a front desk and opening hours. On Piazza delle Scuole, at the 534 terminus, Rankwit's office offers a few desks on request; otherwise you take the bus to Catania.
Photo: Carlo Pelagalli · CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: andrea · CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Giovanni.grasso · CC BY-SA 4.0
Aci Trezza
The registered office of Rankwit S.r.l. Società Benefit, a company that tracks how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini mention hotels and destinations. It is not a staffed coworking with opening hours: the company offers a few desks on request to remote workers staying in Aci Trezza. Availability, hours and price are agreed by email. Disclosure: Rankwit is connected to Dario Valastro, who runs this site.
Beaches and nature
Basalt sea stacks just off Aci Trezza which, according to legend, Polyphemus threw at Ulysses. They are part of the Riserva naturale integrale Isola Lachea e Faraglioni dei Ciclopi, set up in 1998 and run by the University of Catania, inside the Isole Ciclopi marine protected area. You see them from the Lungomare dei Ciclopi, where people swim from volcanic rock platforms, in free areas or at lidos with sunbeds.
June–October (sea 22.6–26.3 °C, Catania data)
Experiences
The largest of the Cyclops islands, about 400 m off Aci Trezza: an oval of basalt and hardened clay 250 m by 150 m, just under 2 hectares and 35 m high at the top. A natural history museum and a University of Catania marine station sit on the summit, and the island is home to an endemic lizard, Podarcis sicula ciclopica, the reason the reserve exists. When running, guided visits with University staff land on the west side and take 45–60 minutes.
All year, weather permitting (University of Catania)
Experiences
Small museum in a 19th-century two-room house next to the church of San Giovanni Battista, named after the medlar-tree house in Verga's I Malavoglia. One room covers Luchino Visconti's La terra trema, filmed here in 1948 with local fishermen as actors; the other shows fishing life in the mid-1800s, with tools, household objects, photographs taken by Verga and letters to his brother Pietro. Both rooms open onto a courtyard with a medlar tree.