At the center of Piazza Palestro, you will find Porta Garibaldi, one of the access doors to the city.
Also called Porta Ferdinandea or “the fortress”, as it has replaced a military building collapsed following an eruption of the Etna, the door is a triumphal arch built to celebrate the wedding of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Hapsburg-Lorraine. This curious wedding gift included a dedication and a portrait of the two faces engraved in a medallion that, after the rebellion of the royals’ former subjects, were covered by a clock. From that door, also crossed by Garibaldi when he set the island free, you may see the dome of the Cathedral of Saint Agatha: a frame of a love, certainly stronger than the ‘political’ union between the royals, hugging the Duomo and the city.
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