West of Piazza del Duomo lie Catania's most impressive ancient ruins: the remains of a 2nd-century Roman Theatre and its small rehearsal theater, the Odeon. The ruins are evocatively sited in the thick of a crumbling residential neighborhood, with vine-covered buildings that appear to have sprouted organically from the half-submerged stage. Adjacent to the main theater is the Casa Liberti (closed Sundays), an elegantly restored 19th-century apartment now home to two millennia worth of artifacts discovered during the excavation of the site.

