Messina (province) Voyage Tips and guide

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For all visitors to Sicily who have made the journey across the entire boot of Italy to Calabria and crossed the Strait of Messina, the so-called Stretto, from Villa San Giovanni or Reggio di Calabria, Messina is the arrival point on the island and the starting point for getting to know Sicily.

38°22′1″N 14°54′53″E

Map of Messina (province)

• 38.18333315.551 Messina — busy city and link to the mainland
• 37.83333315.2833332 Giardini Naxos — Naxos was the first Greek colony in Sicily, now it is Giardini Naxos under the hill of Taormina
• 38.21666715.2333333 Milazzo — gateway to the Aeolian Islands
• 38.01666715.1333334 Novara di Sicilia — A beautiful medieval town near Mt. Etna is listed among "I Borghi pui Belli D'Italia" (The Most Beautiful Towns in Italy) and provides a convenient central point for day trips to visit the Aeolian Islands, Tindari, Taormina, Giardini Naxos and Mount Etna
• 37.85222215.2919445 Taormina — the main resort & tourist spot. Great Teatro Greco and views of Etna and the coast. Including the hilltop village of Castelmola
• 38.23333315.4333336 Villafranca Tirrena — has a baronial castle (Castello di Bauso), built in 1590, anr the Church of San Nicolò

• 38.53333314.91 Aeolian Islands (Isole Eolie) — beautiful group of volcanic islands ( UNESCO World Heritage Site)
• 37.8763415.1714012 Parco fluviale dell'Alcantara — a nature park along the river Alcantara, at the south-east of the province. It is famous for Gole dell'Alcantara – a deep impressive gorge carved by the Alcantara river on the edge of Etna.
• 37.9314.6193 Parco dei Nebrodi — Explore the trails of the mountainous park.

Messina stretches across a strip of land around the northeastern corner of the island of Sicily. The most important cities are all located near the sea, and the mountainous hinterland is sparsely populated and often poorly developed. Swimming opportunities are primarily found in the northeast; towards Palermo, the already steep northern coast of Sicily is often a mountainous cliff, where the motorway has to be built through tunnels.

The Strait of Messina, or rather the Stretto, is known from the Odyssey, where the journey takes place between the rocks of Scilla and Charybdis, with the dog-headed monster Scylla devouring sailors on the Calabrian side and Charybdis sucking in the sea water along with ships three times a day to spit it out again on the Sicilian side.

At the strait, one can still see the pylons of a high-voltage line that has since been dismantled, and the project work on the road bridge over the Stretto has once again been suspended due to a lack of secured financing.

Even before arriving in Messina, and at the latest when getting off the ferry, it is worth considering whether you want to visit the southeastern part of the island (Catania, Siracusa and the baroque towns in the Val di Noto) and head south, or whether you would rather head west to Cefalù, Palermo, Trapani or even Marsala in the west and drive west along the north coast. Crossing the Sicilian island diagonally may be attractive in your own car, but it is definitely time-consuming and requires some enjoyment of winding country roads; public transport is almost only available along the routes described above.

The Metropolitan City replaced the former Province of Messina on 1 January 2015.

Of those mentioned in the local articles, Taormina with the Greek Theatre and the Gola dell'Alcantara are the most visited sights.

You can hike in the nature park regions of the Nebrodi and on Mount Etna, beaches can be found on the flatter coastal sections in the northeast of the province, and the small bathing bays on the cliffs are often overcrowded in summer.

Sicilian cuisine near the sea relies more on fish and seafood, while in the hinterland it relies on cheese, meat and sausages and, of course, on dolci, sweet baked goods, or even ice cream and granite.

Pidone (u pidùni in Sicilian) is a rustic, half-moon-shaped dish from Messina, similar to calzone. According to the original recipe, it is fried and topped with curly endive (scarola), tuma cheese, salted anchovies, and pepper, and either fried or baked. However, there are many other variations, such as with tomatoes, and ham.