Casa Museo Giovanni Verga

The Casa Museo Giovanni Verga stands at Via Sant'Anna 8 in the historic centre of Catania, in eastern Sicily. It is the preserved home of the novelist Giovanni Verga, who lived from 1840 to 1922 and is regarded as the leading figure of Italian verismo, the realist literary movement. Verga was born in Catania and wrote most famously about Sicilian rural and working life, in works such as I Malavoglia and Mastro-don Gesualdo, as well as short stories including Cavalleria rusticana, which was later made into an opera. He died in this house in 1922. The museum preserves his study, his library and his furnishings, so that the rooms give a direct impression of the writer's daily life in late 19th and early 20th century Catania. Displays include books, manuscripts, letters, photographs and personal belongings, and Verga's own interest in photography is part of the story told by the house. The curatorial approach is that of a house museum, in which the rooms are kept close to their original arrangement rather than reorganised thematically. The building is a townhouse of the type that grew up in the Baroque rebuilding of the city after 1693, and it was adapted over time as a residence. The house is now run as a state museum, and the Ministry of Culture lists the site on its cultural portal. Reported admission is about EUR 4, with EUR 2 reduced and EUR 1 for residents of the province, and the museum can be contacted on +39 095 7150598 for current hours. The visit is short but rewarding for those who know Verga's novels or who wish to understand the Sicilian literary tradition, and it can be combined with the Museo Belliniano and the nearby Via dei Crociferi.