Messina
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By Dion Protani
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Latest update: 14 March 2022
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The city of Messina is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Messina with a population of 232,555 inhabitants.
Situated on the western shore of the Messina Strait, it covers a total area of 213 km² and lies 229 kilometres east of Palermo, the regional capital of Sicily. One of the oldest cities in Europe, Messina was founded by the Greeks in the 8th century BC. It was and remains an important port for trade and tourism; the gateway to Sicily from the mainland. |
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Despite its longevity, Messina's modern history revolves around tragedy and has been the repeated recipient of disasters coming from the ground, the sea and the sky. The city is built on a fault line which has meant a series of earthquakes, the most damaging of which occurred in 1783 and 1908. The latter of those two earthquakes caused a subsequent tidal wave which led to huge loss of life and left the city itself in a pile of rubble. Years of recovery from the events of 1908 came to a resounding halt during World War Two when Messina was officially the most bombed city in Italy.
As a consequence of the disasters outlined above, Messina doesn't have the legacy of architectural wonders that its long history deserves and its most recent buildings have been built low to the ground to guard against future seismic events. That said, this is a busy, thriving port city that receives a huge number of visitors every day. The main reason for this is that Messina is the port you pass through when you take a ferry crossing from Calabria on the Italian mainland. Of the thousands of tourists that pass through Messina every day, only a small percentage spend any time here but there are some places of interest for those that do.
Messina's hook-shaped port is where most visitors arrive and from here it's just a short distance to Piazza del Duomo. This is the home of the Cathedral which was originally built in 12th century but reconstructed after the disasters of the first half of the 20th century. On the same square of the Cathedral is the Bell Tower. This is my personal highlight of Messina; firstly, the Bell Tower can be climbed for one of the best views of the city and beyond but there is more to it than that. Facing out from the Bell Tower is an astronomical clock with a variety of golden statues that help to tell the time in different ways. Then perhaps best of all is the lion's roar that emanates from the tower at 12:00 every day, just after the bells have finished tolling. You may find yourself slightly alarmed by this but I'm assured the lion isn't real.
Away from roaring lions and astronomical clocks, Messina is blessed with some pleasant stretches of promenade where locals enjoy their passeggiatas. As you walk you may muse over quotes from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing that was set in Messina. Perhaps the line of the play that fits Messina best is "Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me".
Train travel to and from Messina can include a rather unique feature. If you're travelling to or from the Italian mainland by train, that train will be put on a ferry and cross the sea. There are in fact two train stations within a few hundred metres of each other, situated right by the ferry port. The station that serves the trains to and from the mainland is called Stazione Marittima and just next to it is Stazione Messina Centrale which serves destinations in Sicily. By train it takes 33 minutes to cross the Messina Strait to the port of Villa San Giovanni in Calabria on the Italian mainland. From Villa San Giovanni it's a 5 hour plus train ride to the town of Salerno in the region of Campania, close to the Amalfi Coast.
From Messina Stazione Centrale, trains run south to Catania with a journey time of one hour 50 minutes, with one of the 18 intervening stops at Taormina/Giardini Naxos (55 minutes). You can also travel along Sicily's northern coast to Palermo (3 hours 5 minutes) with stops along the way at the port town of Milazzo (22 minutes), the seaside resort of Cefalù (2 hours 14 minutes) and another port, Termini Imerese (2 hours 38 minutes).
By sea from Messina the most popular journey is the 20-30 minute ferry crossing to and from Villa San Giovanni but there are also hydrofoils available to Villa San Giovanni, Reggio Calabria and the Aeolian Islands. As an alternative to the train ride up to Salerno there are also ferries which take 8 hours.
The most convenient airport for Messina is Catania Airport which is an hour and 19 minutes away by car (109 km). Sicily's two other airports don't offer convenient alternatives; both Palermo Airport and Trapani Airport are more than two and a half hours away from Messina.
The most popular place to visit from Messina is the town of Taormina, one of Sicily's star attractions with its Ancient Greek Theatre and beaches such as Isola Bella. Taormina is reachable either by public transport or by heading straight down the motorway (48 minutes). Alternatively, the nearby port of Milazzo is a 40 minute drive from Messina and offers a greater number of sea crossings to the Aeolian Islands than are possible from Messina itself.
As a consequence of the disasters outlined above, Messina doesn't have the legacy of architectural wonders that its long history deserves and its most recent buildings have been built low to the ground to guard against future seismic events. That said, this is a busy, thriving port city that receives a huge number of visitors every day. The main reason for this is that Messina is the port you pass through when you take a ferry crossing from Calabria on the Italian mainland. Of the thousands of tourists that pass through Messina every day, only a small percentage spend any time here but there are some places of interest for those that do.
Messina's hook-shaped port is where most visitors arrive and from here it's just a short distance to Piazza del Duomo. This is the home of the Cathedral which was originally built in 12th century but reconstructed after the disasters of the first half of the 20th century. On the same square of the Cathedral is the Bell Tower. This is my personal highlight of Messina; firstly, the Bell Tower can be climbed for one of the best views of the city and beyond but there is more to it than that. Facing out from the Bell Tower is an astronomical clock with a variety of golden statues that help to tell the time in different ways. Then perhaps best of all is the lion's roar that emanates from the tower at 12:00 every day, just after the bells have finished tolling. You may find yourself slightly alarmed by this but I'm assured the lion isn't real.
Away from roaring lions and astronomical clocks, Messina is blessed with some pleasant stretches of promenade where locals enjoy their passeggiatas. As you walk you may muse over quotes from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing that was set in Messina. Perhaps the line of the play that fits Messina best is "Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me".
Train travel to and from Messina can include a rather unique feature. If you're travelling to or from the Italian mainland by train, that train will be put on a ferry and cross the sea. There are in fact two train stations within a few hundred metres of each other, situated right by the ferry port. The station that serves the trains to and from the mainland is called Stazione Marittima and just next to it is Stazione Messina Centrale which serves destinations in Sicily. By train it takes 33 minutes to cross the Messina Strait to the port of Villa San Giovanni in Calabria on the Italian mainland. From Villa San Giovanni it's a 5 hour plus train ride to the town of Salerno in the region of Campania, close to the Amalfi Coast.
From Messina Stazione Centrale, trains run south to Catania with a journey time of one hour 50 minutes, with one of the 18 intervening stops at Taormina/Giardini Naxos (55 minutes). You can also travel along Sicily's northern coast to Palermo (3 hours 5 minutes) with stops along the way at the port town of Milazzo (22 minutes), the seaside resort of Cefalù (2 hours 14 minutes) and another port, Termini Imerese (2 hours 38 minutes).
By sea from Messina the most popular journey is the 20-30 minute ferry crossing to and from Villa San Giovanni but there are also hydrofoils available to Villa San Giovanni, Reggio Calabria and the Aeolian Islands. As an alternative to the train ride up to Salerno there are also ferries which take 8 hours.
The most convenient airport for Messina is Catania Airport which is an hour and 19 minutes away by car (109 km). Sicily's two other airports don't offer convenient alternatives; both Palermo Airport and Trapani Airport are more than two and a half hours away from Messina.
The most popular place to visit from Messina is the town of Taormina, one of Sicily's star attractions with its Ancient Greek Theatre and beaches such as Isola Bella. Taormina is reachable either by public transport or by heading straight down the motorway (48 minutes). Alternatively, the nearby port of Milazzo is a 40 minute drive from Messina and offers a greater number of sea crossings to the Aeolian Islands than are possible from Messina itself.
Comune di Messina
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Province: Metropolitan City of Messina
Region: Sicily Population: 222,329 (source: ISTAT 1 January 2022) Size: 213 km² Top sights: Astronomical Clock, Cathedral, Bell Tower Close by: Milazzo, Taormina, Giardini Naxos, Aeolian Islands Recommended accommodation: VMaison Hotel |
Fly to: Catania Airport - 1 hour 20 minutes by car (111 km)
By train: Villa San Giovanni - 33 minutes, Milazzo - 22 minutes |
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