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READ EVERTYHING ABOUT MESSINA AND ITS PROVINCE
MESSINA
Originally called Zancle (sickle) for the curved shape of its port. The city still maintains few archeological marks of its past for the chronological overlapping of the settlements, the earthquakes that came one after the other and the huge damage caused by the last world wars. Places to see: Duomo, Orione fountain, SS. Annunziata dei Catalani church of the twelfth century and other churches and monuments.
Duomo bell tower is very interesting because it has a mechanical clock, the biggest in the world, built in 1933 in Strasbourg. It is a clock that counts the astronomical phases of time with a face of the planetary system, the figures of the week days and of the age of the man: in addition, it has the nativity scene, the Epiphany, the Resurrection, the Pentecost and the delivery of the Sacred Letter of the Madonna to Messina ambassadors ( Madonna della Lettera is the saint patron of the city): the scenography is completed by a golden cock put between the statues of the two heroic common Dina and Clarenza and a golden lion. At the midnight stroke the all scenography livens up among the curiosity of the tourists that meet in the square to see the daily event.
TAORMINA - ISOLA BELLA - MAZZAR - CASTELMOLA - LETOJANNI - GIARDINI NAXOS
Taormina is located at about 200 meters above the sea level and it has a particular conformation that makes it look like a real terrace enriched by a beautiful view of which it shows the near volcano Etna up. Here the tourism is active during the year and it is facilitated by the cultural and natural beauty of the town.
Throughout the centuries, the town has always been an important tourist destination that has hosted some famous people, as Guglielmo II from Germany, several writers as Goethe, Maupassant, D. H. Lawrence, A. France, Oscar Wilde, Brahms, designer the likes of Dior, illustrious noblewomen as Florence Trevelyan, the German painter Geleng, English and French nobles.
Who is interested in the tour of the town will be fascinated by the same charm that it has exerted on the illustrious men just cited and you can choose among several offers from the local town.
The old theater is not only a piece of the archeological heritage of Taormina, but it is a beauty beyond compare place. The tower of the clock is like the entrance door of the town, which is defined a fifteeth-century suburb.
CORVAJA PALACE is located in Badia square, it is the most important medieval palace that the town brags about. It has an Arabian, Gothic and Norman style, this is the result of the changes brought by various dominations. The first stage of this new tourist tour dedicated to the discovery of this wonderful Sicilian town has to do with the Municipal villa dedicated to the Duke Colonna from Cesar.
The beauty of this green paradise in the town is constituted by several distinctive elements, starting with the beautiful panoramic view on the south coast and on the Etna volcano and by the rich and luxuriant vegetation, which is very variegated and exotic, with Mediterranean and tropical maquis.
A second tour must be made at the above mentioned beautiful beaches.
The small Baia of Mazzar is a famous bathing resort, it is an attraction marked off by Capo SantAndrea, completed by Isola Bella which closes a small bay, a characteristic seaside hub of the area, famous for its beauty with clear colors, love by all the tourists.
Mazzar Bay can be easily reached and it offers the chance to make some nice excursions in the sea caves.
Among the other geographic delimitations of this bay there is also the stacks in Capo Taormina.
The next path is Letojanni, another small town enhanced by the inhabitants of the area, it can blend the natural appeal and the chance to taste excellent fish dishes.
The site of Castelmola is famous for the presence of an enchanting Castle and of fascinating lake, near Etna volcano, which is almost threatening due to its continue activity, near Giardini Naxos, another famous tourist town, we need to pause over the natural site given by Alcantara river.
ISOLE EOLIE - LIPARI - VULCANO - SALINA - PANAREA - STROMBOLI - FILUCUDI ALICUDI
The first human marks in the Eolie islands, in Lipari and in Panarea, appear in 6000 B.C., that is in the Neolithic age. The eoliana chronologic can be identified only with the story of Lipari, the biggest of the islands. Between the fifth and the fourth millennium B.C. the Oriental Mediterranean people, by migrating towards west, got to Tirreno sea and for the Eolie islands started a floridity time thanks to the business of the obsidian (a very hard and sharp lava rock) that became the strongest raw material more than the fern, useful for many things, this changed the economic interests of the people before interested only in the agriculture. After various prehistoric events, from thirteenth century B.C. started the decay phase of the islands till fourth century B.C. when new cultures coming from Cnido and Rodi. There were other battles, occupations, piracy, destructions and fires till, conquered by the Romas, in 252 B.C., it was razed to the ground by losing its independence and its prosperity. But it got to capitalized on the business of the rock alum and the hot spring of Vulcan and Lipari. The Eolie archipelago comprises the islands of Alicudi, Filicudi, Lipari, Panarea, Salina, Stromboli and Vulcano. This last one has acquired notable renown, more than for the extraordinary beauty of its coast, for the thermal value of the waters and the mud that are on the beach near the stacks where the water boils for the below volcanic fumaroles; these post volcanic appearances are present in Lipari and in Panarea too but only in the islanda of Lipari there is a thermal bath (S. Calogero ones).
Lipari. Sanctuary Madonna della Catena (Quattropani di Lipari) It is very interesting the visit of the archeological Museum that still keeps important finds of the ancient civilization of the archipelago; the Castle built by the Spanish after the incursion of Barbarossa, the Cathedral of Norman age changed in baroque age. In Diana contrada you can find the Hellenistic necropolis. The thermal bath of S. Calogero, now in renovation phase, is located on the west coast and it has very ancient origins.
Vulcano. It is the closest island near Sicily divided from Lipari with a narrow sea arm called Bocche di Vulcano. In the ancient times it was considered the center of Efesio, god of fire, it has a beautiful contrast between the barren nature of its rocks and the blue of its intense sera. Levante and Ponente port are defined by the peninsula of Vulcanello, constitute two wonderful and contrasting beaches, one very colorful, the other one black for the volcanic sand.
Panarea. It is surrounded by islands and islets among them the nicest if Basiluzzo, which it has a broken coastal perimeter of very notable fascination.
Stromboli. It is formed by a volcanic cone of about 926 mt (Serra Vancura) in direct activity, that pours its lava flow along the north-east coast called Sciara del fuoco; at north-east, at about a kilometer and a half it stands out the islet of Strombolicchio, 43 mt high.
Salina. Sanctuary Madonna del Terzito (Val di Chiesa Leni) is rich of thick and green cultivation, it has some of the highest relieves of the archipelago, mounts fossa delle Felci ( 962 mt), and Porri (859 mt). The sweet water present in the island has given impulse to a blooming vine, ( from which it is derived the Malvasia, produced in Lipari too), fruit, capers and prickly pears farming. Near Punta Lingua there is a small salt lake once used as a saltpan from which it comes the name of the island. You can admire a wonderful sight at about 200 mt from Rinella beach where sulfurous emissions from the sea bed make emerge on the surface big bubbles called sconcassi. A nice tourist place became the small house of Pollare used by Troisi for the movie Il Postino.
Alicudi. It is the most western island of the archipelago. The highest peak is constituted by an inactive volcano of Montagnola (675 mt). It has an unpolluted beach rich of fish and lobster crabs.
Filicudi. It has an oval shape and it is surrounded by rocks among them the Canna is remarkable, a natural obelisk 85 mt high. Also interesting is the cave of Bue Marino that has phantasmagorical refractive light.
TINDARI - I LAGHETTI - GIOIOSA MAREA - PATTI - OLIVERI
Oliveri is a resort place located at the mountainside of Tindari, right in front of a beautiful sandy beach. Originally it was a small marina village of fishermen, today is a modern resort place with a typical seafront, small bars and restaurants where it is possible to taste Sicilian fish dinner. Near the Natural Reserve of Tindari, with the typical sand hills that hem in marina caves and isolated beaches only reachable by boat. A must to see is Madonna di Tindari sanctuary, located on the promontory with its wonderful archeological area and its beautiful Greek Theater, where all summer they put up several cultural plays. Among the sandy beach that Oliveri offers, it is possible to admire with naked eye five Eolie islands (Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Panarea and Stromboli), the small lakes of Marinello with its homonymous Natural Reserve, the unique of its kind, are a landscape not to be missed! In the area there are equally tourist places to see as PATTI, an ancient small town, famous for the production of hand-craft ceramics, San Giorgio, Gioiosa Marea famous for the clear sea, sandy beaches and for the red sunsets, the bay of Capo Calav with its granitic rock and the beautiful sandy beach.
CAPO D' ORLANDO
Capo d'Orlando is a small town made for the tourist because it can offer the joy to have a beautiful sea, still unpolluted and a blooming landscape, the appeal of a number of cultural, sport events, the plays and the interest for traditions that it is deeply rooted in the ancient time. And, of course, it has a perfect hospitality for all the tourists. By carrying on from Lido San Gregorio towards Contrada Scafa we find a small tourist port, now on completion of the works, but it is exploited for the fishing and also for the moorings of numerous yachtsmen of the district.
GOLE DELL' ALCANTARA
About 50 km of river channel, with unique and bizarre naturalistic aspects. Some geological and geothermal events of notable intensity have created the structure of the current basalts. It seems like in the prehistoric time a river flowed on clayey sediments; then big volcanic eruptions canalized in the river bed a fluid magma, that collapsed in the most clayey lines, by giving birth to the current basaltic colonnades. The apotheosis of these spectacular sculptures of the nature is present in contrada Larderia of the municipality of Motta Camastra.
MONTI PELORITANI E MONTI NEBRODI
Nebrodi Park, constituted in 1993, comprises the most important and large wood present in Sicily ( about 50.000 ha). The arboreal species most important are the Fagus sylvatica (at the extreme south border of the area of diffusion), the Quercus cerris, the Quercus suber. There are also peculiar formations like Quercus ilex, Taxus baccata, Ilex aquifolium and important lakes and rupestrian environment. Very rich is the invertebrate and vertebrate fauna.
The Peloritani, a ridge of the northeast Sicily, that reaches out towards NE-SW from Capo Peloro till Nebrodi mounts, it is extended for about 65 km and its foothills vanishes in the valley of Alcantara river, that flows into south of Giardini Naxos and it separates it from Etna mount. At west the Peloritani, in correspondence to Rocca Novara and Montagna Grande, they change in horizontal sense their crests and have their joint with the chain of Nebrodi, at North and East they are delimited by Tyrrhenian and Ionio sea where numerous rivers flow into.
SANTO STEFANO DI CAMASTRA
Besides the typical historic center, in Santo Stefano you can admire:
Ceramic Museum, put up at the internal of the historical Trabia Palace (seventeenth century), built on the remains of an ancient Norman castle;
Armao Palace, built by the homonymous family that enriched itself with the business of the decorated majolicas (there is also the Communal Library).
Santo Stefano di Camastra, beside the majolicas, is famous for its sea, the less cold of all Italy.
The coast is extended for more than 4 km in a very interesting naturalistic area.
