Where to Stay in Messina, Sicilia

What is Messina known for?

Messina faces Calabria across a crossing of five kilometres, and the ferries to Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria make the city the access terminal between the island and the mainland. History here comes in ruptures. Messina Cathedral is the landmark that remains, in a city where the earthquake and tsunami of 1908 and the bombing of the Second World War took most of the older fabric.

One conference gave the city a different claim: the meeting held in June 1955 set up the European Community and the common market that became the European Union.

What are the main landmarks in Messina?

Messina Cathedral is the fixed point, and the Museo della Cattedrale di Messina keeps what belongs to it. The Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, Santa Maria Alemanna, San Salvatore, and the Chiesa del Carmine are the churches worth the detour. Defences come next.

Forte Castellaccio and the Torre di Macalda carry the defensive record, Mategriffon sits with them in the older register, and the Monument of Giuseppe Natoli, the Monumento ai Caduti della Batteria Masotto, and the stemma di Messina con mascherone mark the civic one.

What is the history of Messina?

Messina dates to ancient times. The city's position at the Strait of Messina gave it a harbour that mattered long before the modern crossing, and the Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, Santa Maria Alemanna, and San Salvatore belong to the older city. Mategriffon and the Torre di Macalda belong to the same layer.

Then the ground moved. The earthquake and tsunami of 28 December 1908 destroyed most of what stood, and Allied bombing during the Second World War took much of the remainder, which is why the streets read as a twentieth-century city built on an ancient site. Rebuilding produced the city visitors see.

Messina Cathedral stands at the centre of that rebuilt city, the Museo della Cattedrale di Messina and the Regional museum of Messina hold what came through, and the Monumento ai Caduti della Batteria Masotto records the losses of the war years. One meeting changed the register entirely. In June 1955 the city hosted the conference that set up the European Community and the common market, the arrangement that later became the European Union, which put a rebuilt Sicilian port into the founding record of a continent's institutions.

Local memory keeps its own shelves, in the Museo Cultura e Musica Popolare dei Peloritani, the Casa del Puparo, and the Museo Annibale Di Francia.

Where is Messina?

Five kilometres of water separate the two shores. Messina sits at the Strait of Messina on the island of Sicily, with Calabria in view across the water and Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria as the landings on the other side. The Metropolitan City of Messina takes in the country behind the port, and the city is the third largest on the island of Sicily and the thirteenth largest in Italy.

What is the climate of Messina?

The Strait of Messina moves the air here, funnelling wind between Sicily and Calabria in a way that a broader coast would not, and the ferries feel it more than the streets do. Messina sits in a temperate band. Days at Messina Cathedral and the Regional museum of Messina rarely turn on the weather, but a crossing to Reggio Calabria can, which is worth knowing before a day is planned around the mainland.

How do you get to Messina?

Most people arrive by ferry. The crossing from Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria in Calabria takes five kilometres of water, and Messina works as the access terminal on the island side, which is why so many visitors see the city only between boats. A day is enough to change that, since Messina Cathedral, the Regional museum of Messina, and Santa Maria Alemanna justify the stop on their own.