| Ragalna | |
|---|---|
| Comune | |
| Comune di Ragalna | |
  Ragalna Location of Ragalna in Italy | |
| Coordinates: 37°38′N14°56′E / 37.633°N 14.933°E Coordinates: 37°38′N14°56′E / 37.633°N 14.933°E | |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Sicily |
| Metropolitan city | Catania (CT) |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Salvatore Chisari |
| Area | |
| • Total | 39.2 km2 (15.1 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 830 m (2,720 ft) |
| Population (31 December 2010) [1] | |
| • Total | 3,649 |
| • Density | 93/km2 (240/sq mi) |
| Demonym(s) | Ragalnesi |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Postal code | 95030 |
| Dialing code | 095 |
| Website | Official website |
Ragalna is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about 150 kilometres (93 mi) southeast of Palermo and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northwest of Catania.
The comune is a basic administrative division in Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality.
The Metropolitan City of Catania is a metropolitan city in Sicily, southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Catania. It replaced the Province of Catania and comprises the city of Catania and other 57 municipalities (comuni).
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a European country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Italian Alps and surrounded by several islands. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and traversed along its length by the Apennines, Italy has a largely temperate seasonal climate. The country covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and shares open land borders with France, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in the Tunisian sea (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the fourth-most populous member state of the European Union.
Points of interest include the Giardino Botanico "Nuova Gussonea", a botanical garden on Mount Etna.
The Giardino Botanico "Nuova Gussonea" is a botanical garden located at an altitude of 1700 m on the southern side of Mount Etna, in area B of the Etna Natural Park, Ragalna, Province of Catania, Sicily, Italy. It has a surface of about 10 hectares.
A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation, preservation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants. Visitor services at a botanical garden might include tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment.
Mount Etna, or Etna, is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is the highest active volcano in Europe outside the Caucasus. It is currently 3,326 m (10,912 ft) high, though this varies with summit eruptions. It is the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 (459 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands surpasses it in the whole of the European–North-African region west of the Black Sea. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under this mountain by Zeus, the god of the sky and thunder and king of gods, and the forges of Hephaestus were said to also be located underneath it.
