Messina, Taormina and the northeast

Messina

North of Messina

Savoca

Casalvecchio Siculo

Forza d’Agrò

Taormina

Around Taormina

The Alcantara valley

With its dramatic backdrop of mountains, Sicily’s northeastern corner includes the island’s most visually exotic coastline, crammed with brilliant displays of vegetation. With beaches of fine quartz shingle, the coast is also dominated by an almost unbroken ribbon of development, for this is one of Sicily’s most popular resort areas, with both Italian and foreign tourists lured by the stunning views down to a cobalt sea. Once the decadent retreat of D.H. Lawrence and Oscar Wilde, Taormina is now the most illustrious resort on the entire island, and its famous ancient theatre, grand hotels and engaging small-town charm captivate most visitors. The local beaches are all a short ride below town, including the extensive sands that line the curving bay at Giardini-Naxos.

It’s Messina, just across the busy Straits from mainland Italy, that’s the major city in this region, though an unfortunate history has left only scant attractions. Inland, you can leave the crowds behind in the venerable old hill-villages of Savoca and Forza d’Agrò, where many scenes from the Godfather films were shot, as well as taking in the area’s most gruesome attraction – the mummified bodies on display in Savoca’s Cappuccini monastery. Further south, beyond Taormina, the Alcantara valley with its spectacular gorge is the best target hereabouts for those seeking outdoor adventure – while beguiling, unspoilt Castiglione di Sicilia is the hill-town most likely to pull at the heartstrings of those yearning to begin a new life in rural Sicily.

VARA AT MESSINA FERRAGOSTO

Highlights

1 Messina by night Climb the Via Panoramica to the floodlit sanctuary of Cristo Re for magical views over the lights of the city and the Straits to mainland Italy.

2 Ferragosto The Vara, an opulent silver scaffolding mounted on iron skis showing the Madonna ascending to Heaven, is hauled through the streets of Messina’s historic centre.

3 Savoca This hill-village offers a gruesome set of mummified bodies and the chance to scope out locations from The Godfather movies.

4 Teatro Greco, Taormina The island’s most dramatically sited classical theatre makes a superb summer venue for concerts, films, opera and classical Greek dramas.

5 The Gole dell’Alcantara Wade through the water in the deep gorge of the Alcantara River.

6 Castiglione di Sicilia Clustered below a castle, this mellow medieval village has a gentle pace of life and great views of Etna.

< Back to Messina, Taormina and the northeast

GETTING AROUND: MESSINA, TAORMINA AND THE NORTHEAST

By bus Fast buses are the most convenient link between Messina and Milazzo. Travelling south down the coast, local buses get snarled up in the succession of towns and villages along the coast – an excruciatingly slow ride passing pretty much nowhere you would want to stop (or even see). Far better to take one of the fast buses via the autostrada whenever you can.

By train Palermo-bound trains running west from Messina stop at Milazzo and Capo d’Orlando. The line traces the shoreline pretty much all the way, allowing sparkling views across to Calabria on a clear day.

By road The toll autostradas (the A18 south and A20 west) are the fastest way to get around the northeast, plunging through some fairly dramatic scenery as they cruise above the sea.

Messina

MESSINA may well be your first sight of Sicily, and from the ferry it’s a fine one, stretching out along the seaboard, north of the distinctive hooked harbour from which the city took its Greek name – Zancle (Sickle). The natural beauty of its location, looking out over the Straits to the forested hills of Calabria, is Messina’s best point; Shakespeare (who almost certainly never laid eyes on the city) used it as the setting for his Much Ado About Nothing. Yet the city itself holds only a few buildings of any historical or architectural interest, dotted along streets that are either traffic-choked or used as racetracks by drivers who rank among the most reckless in Sicily. The unedifying appearance is not entirely Messina’s own fault: the congestion is largely the result of the surrounding mountains, which squeeze the traffic along the one or two roads that link the elongated centre with the northern suburbs. Messina’s modern aspect is more a tribute to its powers of survival in the face of a record of devastation that’s high even by Sicily’s disaster-prone standards (see The trials and tribulations of Messina). Consequently, the attractions of Messina itself are limited, and can be seen quickly.

  If you’re here in summer, you’ll notice the passage of the tall-masted felucche, or swordfish boats, patrolling the narrow channel, attracted to these rich waters from many kilometres up and down the Italian coast. You can enjoy their catch the same day in the city or a little way north at Ganzirri, where gaudy lakeside fish restaurants provide some relief from the city. Beyond, and around the corner of Punta del Faro, lidos line the coast at Mortelle, whose beaches, bars and pizzerias are where the city comes to relax. Messina’s wide remodelled boulevards, the best of them lined with trees and Liberty-style palazzi, have a certain bourgeois charm, but much of the city centre is given over to charmless buildings, more or less anti-seismic, depending on the honesty of whoever was responsible for their construction. The treasure-trove of art contained in the Museo Regionale makes up for what the rest of the city lacks.

THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF MESSINA

Messina straddles a fault-line which has been responsible for several centuries of catastrophic earthquakes. The most devastating occurred in 1783 and 1908; on the latter occasion the shore sank by half a metre overnight and around 80,000 Sicilians lost their lives (plus around 15,000 across the Straits in Calabria). Few Messinese families were untouched by the quake, and almost everyone you meet will have some earthquake story – of miraculous escapes, or of people driven insane by the loss of loved ones and their city – passed down from grand- or great-grandparents.

  As if that wasn’t enough, the few surviving buildings, along with everything that had been painstakingly reconstructed in the wake of the earthquake, were subsequently the target of Allied bombardments, when Messina achieved the dubious distinction of being the most intensely bombed Italian city during World War II.

The Duomo

Piazza del Duomo • Mon–Fri 9am–7pm, Sat & Sun 9am–noon & 3.30–7.30pm

Messina’s most important monument, the Duomo, epitomizes the city’s phoenix-like ability to re-create itself from the ashes of its last disaster. It’s the reconstruction of a twelfth-century cathedral erected by Roger II, one of a series of great Norman churches that included the sumptuous cathedrals of Palermo and Cefalù. Formerly, the building dominated medieval Messina, and was the venue for Archbishop Palmer’s marriage of Richard the Lionheart’s sister Joan to the Norman-Sicilian king, William II. Devastated by the earthquake in 1908, it was rebuilt in the years following World War I, only to fall victim to a firebomb in 1943 that reduced it once more to rubble. What you see today is mostly a faithful copy, which took years to complete, with few elements remaining of the original fabric.

  The Romanesque facade is its best aspect, the lower part mostly authentic and dominated by a richly decorated, late Gothic central portal, extravagantly pointed and flanked by two smaller contemporary doors. Almost everything in the undeniably grand interior is a reproduction, from the marble floor to the elaborately painted wooden ceiling. Two rows of sturdy columns line the nave, topped by cement capitals faithfully copied from originals, some of which survive in the Museo Regionale. The mosaic work in the three grand apses holds most interest, though it pales into insignificance beside the island’s other examples of the genre, and only the mosaic on the left – of the Virgin Mary with St Lucy – is original. All the same, try to find someone to switch on the lights, as the mosaics then take on a majesty that’s entirely lost in the gloom that normally shrouds the cathedral’s interior. Little else here predates the twentieth century, apart from some salvaged tombs, most handsome of which is that of Archbishop de Tabiatis from 1333, on the right of the altar and heavily graffitied.

MESSINA’S ROARING CLOCKTOWER

The Duomo’s detached campanile, or belltower, claims to be the largest astronomical clock in the world, and puts on its best show at noon every day, when a bronze lion (Messina’s ancient emblem) unleashes a mighty roar over the city – quite alarming if you’re not expecting it. On the side facing the cathedral two dials show the phases of the planets and the seasons, while above them a globe shows the phases of the moon. The elaborate panoply of moving gilt figures facing the piazza, activated on the hour, half-hour and quarter-hour, ranges from representations of the days of the week and the four Ages of Man to Dina and Clarenza, two semi-legendary women who saved the city from a night attack by the Angevins during the Wars of the Vespers.

  You can climb to the top of the tower to enjoy a great view of the piazza and city (mid-April to mid-Sept Mon–Sat 9am–1pm & 4.30–6.30pm, Sun 10am–1pm & 4.30–6.30pm; mid-Sept to Oct Mon–Sat 9am–1pm, Sun 10am–1pm; Nov to mid-April Sun 10am–1pm; €3.50, or €5 including the tesoro).

The tesoro

Aug daily 9.30am–1pm & 4–7.30pm, other times usually Mon–Sat 9.30am–1pm • €3.50, or €5 including campanile

The Duomo’s tesoro holds precious reliquaries, highlight of which is the Manta d’Oro – a holy adornment designed to “dress” an icon of the Madonna and Child on special occasions, festooned with jewellery donated by aristocrats and royalty. In a similar decorative vein is the Stendardo banner, designed to be carried in sacred processions and encrusted with brooches, rings, chains, necklaces and even watches.

Fontana di Orione

Piazza del Duomo

In front of the cathedral, the graceful Fontana di Orione was daintily carved in the mid-sixteenth century by Montorsoli, a Florentine pupil of Michelangelo. The fountain depicts Orion, the city’s mythical founder, surmounting a collection of cherubs, nymphs and giants, and surrounded by four figures (representing the rivers Nile, Ebro, Camaro and Tiber) reclining along the balustrade. The upper part was carefully restored after earthquake damage in 1908.

Chiesa Annunziata dei Catalani

Via Garibaldi 111 • Usually Mon–Sat 9.30–11.30am, but often closed; call to check •  090 675 175

Just back from the Duomo, the truncated section of the twelfth-century Chiesa Annunziata dei Catalani squats below pavement level, and is Messina’s only surviving example of Arab/Norman church-building. The blind arcading around the apses and the Byzantine-style cupola are the perfect antidote to the ugly cement facade surrounding its three portals, and the interior is suitably simple, with the transept and apse true to their original construction. In front, a martial statue by the sculptor Andrea Calamecca (Calamech) stands half-hidden under the trees, depicting a proud Don Giovanni of Austria, victor of the Battle of Lepanto (the victorious Christian fleet sailed from Messina in 1535).

The harbour

Messina is one of Sicily’s major ports, and the city is at its most atmospheric down by the harbour, with its combination of constant activity and compelling vistas over the Straits. Sicily’s deepest natural harbour is a port of call for freighters and cruisers of all descriptions, as well as for frequent NATO warships. But the greatest traffic consists of ferries, endlessly plying back and forth, which are Sicily’s chief link with the mainland.

Museo Regionale

Via della Libertà 465 • Tues–Sat 9am–7pm (last entry 6.30pm), Sun 9am–1pm (last entry 12.30pm) • €3 •  090 361 292,  www.regione.sicilia.it • Tram #28 to the terminus, Annunziata, or a 45min walk along Via della Libertà; the museum lies on the left, immediately after the Regina Margherita hospital

Messina’s Museo Regionale is a repository for some of the city’s greatest works of art, many of them carefully rescued from earthquake rubble, and includes what is perhaps Sicily’s finest collection of fifteenth- to seventeenth-century art. A much larger museum building is being built next door, where the collection is due to be transferred (ring for an update): until then, the layout of the museum is as described here. In addition, many more items will be displayed in the new building, including an ethereal statue of the Madonna and Child, attributed to Francesco Laurana, and a collection of mainly ecclesiastical silverware, an art at which Messina once excelled.

The displays

The collection starts with some lovely Byzantine work, larded with a good helping of Gothic, well evident in a fourteenth-century triptych of the Madonna with Child between Saints Agatha and Bartholomew, and a remarkably modern-looking wooden crucifix from the fifteenth century, with a sinuous, tragic Christ. The highlight is room 4, which holds marvellous examples of fifteenth-century art, notably the museum’s most famous exhibit, the St Gregory polyptych, by Sicily’s greatest native artist, Antonello da Messina – a masterful synthesis of Flemish and Italian Renaissance styles that’s a good example of the various influences that reached the port of Messina in the fifteenth century. The statue of Scilla, the classical Scylla who terrorized sailors from the Calabrian coast (as described in Homer’s Odyssey), is on display in room 6 – an alarming spectacle, with contorted face and eyes awash with expression. Sculpted by Montorsoli in 1557, it was once adjoined to an imperious figure of Neptune in the act of calming the seas, a copy of which stands on the seafront just up from the hydrofoil terminal. Also here are a couple of large shadowy canvases by Caravaggio, commissioned by the city in 1609, the better of which is the atmospheric Raising of Lazarus. The last room on the ground floor has a monstrous ceremonial carriage from 1742, hauled out for viceregal and other high-ranking visits. Though faded and tarnished, its gilt bodywork is still awesomely grandiose, showing an impressive array of detail.

MESSINA BY NIGHT

Messina can be particularly beautiful by night, especially from the high Via Panoramica – from here, with the city at your feet, there’s a long, sparkling view across to mainland Italy. Via Panoramica changes its name along its route west of the centre from Viale Gaetano Martino to Viale Principe Umberto and Viale Regina Margherita. From the centre, the closest sections of this route are the Viale Principe Umberto and Viale Regina Margherita stretch, where there are bars and pizzerias around two floodlit sanctuaries (Cristo Re and Montalto) and plenty of scope for pleasant evening strolling.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MESSINA

BY TRAIN

Train stations Arriving by train, disembark at Stazione Centrale, Piazza della Repubblica, unless you’re coming on the train ferry from the mainland, in which case you might as well get off at the Stazione Marittima – even if you’re changing trains, as it takes a good hour to reassemble trains from the ferry – and walk 100m on to the Stazione Centrale. If arriving from elsewhere in Sicily, with a hydrofoil or ferry to catch, get off at Stazione Centrale and walk along the platform to the Stazione Marittima. The hydrofoil dock is straight across the road from the station entrance. Allow 10min on foot if you have luggage. On no account take a taxi from outside the station – drivers will attempt to charge €15.

Destinations Catania (1–2 hourly; 1hr 30min–2hr); Cefalù (12 daily; 2–3hr); Milan (8–10 daily, most with change at Villa S. Giovanni and Rome; 11hr–17hr 45min); Milazzo (10–14 daily; 20–35min); Naples (7–10 daily, most with change at Villa S. Giovanni; 5–7hr); Rome (10 daily, most with change at Villa S. Giovanni; 7–10hr); Palermo (8–11 daily; 2hr 30min–4hr); Taormina (1–2 hourly; 40min–1hr 10min).

BY BUS

Bus terminus Piazza della Repubblica is where most of the local and long-distance buses arrive and depart, including buses to Milazzo for the Aeolian Islands.

Destinations Barcellona (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 30min); Capo d’Orlando (12 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 15min–1hr 45min); Catania (11–19 daily Mon–Sat, 8 daily Sun; 1hr 35min); Catania airport (9–15 daily Mon–Sat, 8 daily Sun; 1hr 50min); Forza d’Agrò (1 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 35min); Giardini-Naxos (8–9 daily Mon–Sat; 45min–2hr); Milazzo (fast service hourly Mon–Sat, 3 daily Sun; 50min); Naples (2 daily; 6hr 30min–7hr); Palermo (4–8 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 2hr 40min); Patti (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 20min); Rome (3 daily; 9hr–9hr 20min); Santa Teresa di Riva (13 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr); Taormina (5–8 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 45min).

MESSINA BUS COMPANIES

AST  090 662 244 or  840 000 23,  aziendasicilianatrasporti.it. Departing from Piazza della Repubblica for Barcellona and Patti.

Giuntabus  090 675 749,  giuntabustrasporti.com. Departing from Piazza della Repubblica 52 for Milazzo.

Interbus  090 661 754,  interbus.it. Departing from Piazza della Repubblica 6 for the coast south to Letojanni and Taormina.

Jonica  090 771 400,  insicilia.com. Departing Autosilo Cavallotti (for Forza d’Agrò, Itala, Santa Teresa di Riva and Savoca.

SAIS Autolinee  090 771 914,  saisautolinee.it. Departing from Piazza della Repubblica 6 for Palermo, Catania and Catania airport, also regular connections to Umbria, Tuscany, Bologna and Milan.

SAIS Trasporti  091 617 1141,  saistrasporti.it. Departing from Piazza della Repubblica for Catania, Naples and Rome.

TAI/Magistro  090 675 184,  autolineetai.it. Departing from Via Santa Maria Alemanna, near the train station for Capo d’Orlando, Patti and Tindari.

BY FERRY

Arrivals and tickets Ferries from Villa San Giovanni dock at the Stazione Marittima, apart from Caronte ferries which pull in further up, adjacent to Via della Libertà (10min walk north along the harbour). All tickets across the Straits are on sale at the respective terminals; for Villa San Giovanni, contact Caronte ( 800 627 414,  carontetourist.it) or the train ferry Bluvia, which also takes foot passengers ( 090 678 6478,  rfi.it).

Destinations Salerno (1–2 daily; 8hr); Villa San Giovanni (Bluvia 1–2 hourly, Caronte every 20min or every 40–60min at night; 20–30min).

CROSSING THE STRAITS FROM THE MAINLAND

Crossing the Straits of Messina is arguably the most evocative entry into Sicily. The main embarkation point is Villa San Giovanni, but you can also travel by hydrofoil from Reggio di Calabria, 12km further south towards the tip of Italy’s boot.

  Caronte also operates a ferry service direct to Messina from Salerno, 77km south of Naples, leaving once or twice daily all year and taking eight hours; fares are €20 for foot passengers, more for an armchair or berth, and €43 for a car.

TRAVELLING FROM VILLA SAN GIOVANNI

From Villa San Giovanni there are two ferry services, the state-railway-run Bluvia ( 090 678 6478,  rfi.it) and the private firm Caronte ( 800 627 414,  carontetourist.it), and one hydrofoil (aliscafo) service, Metromare ( 0923 873 813,  metromaredellostretto.it).

  Drivers should follow signs from the Villa San Giovanni autostrada exit, a straightforward run with ferry ticket offices clearly marked. The most frequent service is operated by Caronte, which has two ticket kiosks en route to the port; the second one, past the railway, can be a bit of a scramble, with nowhere to park. The FS/Bluvia ticket office lies across the square from here, with plenty of parking space. Tickets are €37 for a car one-way, or a day-return including three passengers; returns valid for 90 days cost €73 (including three passengers), three-day returns €42 (including three passengers). The queue for boarding involves an average wait of around 15min – even in the peak times of August and rush hour, it’s rarely more than 25min.

  Travelling by train, you might want to stay on it if you’re crossing at night (though you’ll probably be woken by the clanking din as the train is loaded onto the Bluvia ferry), but by day it’s quicker to leave the train at Villa San Giovanni station and skip the shuttling operation, boarding an earlier ferry by foot. In this case, follow the signs from the platform and descend to sea level, where there are ticket offices for Bluvia ferries (one-way tickets €1.50) and Metromare hydrofoils (€2.50). Overhead signs tell you which bay leads to the first departure, or follow everyone else. There are enough Bluvia ferries (1–2 an hour) to make it unnecessary to walk the 500m to the Caronte ferries; hydrofoil departures are roughly hourly (Sat & Sun 4–5 daily).

  Journey time for crossings is 20–40min on Bluvia and Caronte ferries; hydrofoils take 20min. On ferries, a bar on board serves snacks (including some good arancini), coffee and refreshments. Drivers might as well leave their vehicles, though look sharp as the ferry approaches Messina, as disembarkation is a rushed affair (and a suitable introduction to driving in Messina).

TRAVELLING FROM REGGIO DI CALABRIA

From Reggio di Calabria to Messina, there are hydrofoil services from the port, a couple of hundred metres back from Reggio Lido station, operated two or three times daily by Ustica Lines ( 346 011 6552,  usticalines.it) and roughly hourly (Sat & Sun 5 daily) by Metromare, taking about 15min and 30min respectively. Tickets cost €3.50. Meridiano Lines ( 0965 810 414,  meridianolines.it) runs a car ferry service from Reggio di Calabria to Messina, departing on Saturday only. The crossing takes 40min and tickets, costing just €15 per car including passengers, can be bought before departure from the kiosk at the port.

BY HYDROFOIL

Arrivals and tickets Hydrofoils (from the Aeolian Islands, Villa San Giovanni and Reggio di Calabria) dock at the terminal in the port area signposted “aliscafi”. If you’re driving, follow the signposts from the autostrada. There is one hydrofoil daily to Reggio di Calabria and the Aeolian Islands throughout the year, and several daily in summer (mid-June to mid-Sept). Tickets to Reggio di Calabria, Villa San Giovanni and the Aeolians are on sale at the hydrofoil terminal ( 0923 873 813). Timetables and online booking are available at  metromaredellostretto.it or  usticalines.it.

Destinations Lipari (5 daily June to mid-Sept, 1 daily mid-Sept to May; 1hr 20min–3hr 25min); Panarea (3 daily June to mid-Sept; 2hr 5min); Reggio di Calabria (15 daily; 15–25min); Santa Marina Salina (4 daily June to mid-Sept, 1 daily mid-Sept to May; 2hr–2hr 45min); Stromboli (3 daily June to mid-Sept; 1hr 25min); Villa San Giovanni (14 daily; 20min); Vulcano (3 daily June to mid-Sept, 1 daily mid-Sept to May; 1hr 20min–2hr 50min).

BY CAR

Getting to the centre Driving into Messina, leave the autostrada at the Boccetta exit for the centre and ferries (which are fairly well signposted).

Car rental Avis, Via Garibaldi 109 ( 090 679 150); Maggiore, Via Vittorio Emanuele II 75 ( 090 675 476); Sicilcar, Via Garibaldi 187 ( 090 46 942).

BY PLANE

Aeroporto dello Stretto The nearest airport is on the mainland outside Reggio di Calabria, on the other side of the Straits ( 0965 640 517,  sogas.it). There’s a year-round bus service linking the airport with Reggio’s port.

GETTING AROUND

By tram You can walk easily from the station or harbour to the centre of town, but to venture anywhere further, take the city’s single tram line (#28), running between Annunziata in the north (for the Museo Regionale) to Gazzi in the south, with departures from Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza Cairoli and Piazza Municipio every 10min (30min on Sun).

By bus Useful routes include the #79 to Ganzirri, and the #81 (barrato) to Ganzirri and Mortelle, which you can pick up on Via 1 Settembre.

Bus and tram tickets All city buses and trams are run by ATM ( 090 228 5263,  www.atmmessina.it), with tickets (€1.25 valid 90min; €1.70 valid 2 journeys per day, or €2.60 all day) available at tabacchi and from Autosilo Cavallotti, the terminal for most services.

Taxis Ranks at Piazza Cairoli ( 090 293 4880), Piazza della Repubblica, outside Stazione Centrale ( 090 673 703), and at the Caronte terminal; there’s also a 24hr radio taxi ( 090 6505).

INFORMATION

Tourist information The main tourist office is just outside Stazione Centrale on Piazza della Repubblica (Mon & Wed 9am–1.30pm & 3.30–6.30pm, Tues & Thurs 9am–1.30pm & 3–5pm, Fri 9am–1.30pm;  090 672 944), where good English is spoken.

Travel agents Albertours, right opposite the train station at Piazza della Repubblica 25 ( 090 712 035), sells all air, rail and sea tickets.

ACCOMMODATION

Blu Mediterranea Viale Libertà 341  090 914 8777,  blumediterraneobb.com. Three vibrant, pristine rooms in an apartment a little out of town, overlooking the Straits. Though there are no views from the rooms, there is a pleasant inner courtyard (with shower) and Messina’s nearest lido is a 10min walk away. There is a tram stop right outside, so whizzing in and out of the centre is easy. €65

Lepanto Via Lepanto 7  090 669 528,  bedandbreakfastmessina.com. Five rooms in a Liberty palazzo overlooking the Catalana church, close to the Duomo, so an excellent location for anyone coming to Messina for a touch of sightseeing. Rooms are comfortable and traditionally furnished, and breakfast is served on site. €75

Messina Guest House Via Reitano Spadafora 1  090 958 6266,  guesthousemessina.it. Smart, stylish B&B occupying the first floor of an apartment on the boulevard-like Corso Europa. Rooms are soundproofed, with custom-made contemporary dark-wood fittings and furniture, contrasting with creamy upholstery and soft furnishings, and there are prints on the walls by local artist Felice Canonico, a pupil of Guttuso. Bathrooms are spacious with fabulous showers. €80

Sole Luna Via Solferino 9  328 678 7901,  bbsoleluna.info. In a perfect location, on a little street between Viale San Martino and Via Garibaldi, just a hop and a skip from both the hydrofoil port and Piazza Cairoli, this cheerfully decorated little B&B has three rooms, one of them with a spacious, sheltered balcony. It is cosy, and spotlessly clean, with nice bathrooms, and free wi-fi. Breakfast is in a nearby bar. €65

Town House Messina Via Giordano Bruno 66  090 293 6097,  townhousemessina.it. Bijou B&B just off Piazza Cairoli, with gently minimalist rooms decorated in shades of white, grey and mink, fabulous bathrooms (including one with a sexily exposed glass shower) and a changing selection of contemporary art on the walls. Breakfast is at Billé. The word is out, so it can be difficult to get a room. All rooms have free wi-fi. €90

EATING AND DRINKING

Messina has a good range of inexpensive restaurants, though you should head away from the port and Piazza Cairoli for a more relaxed atmosphere. If you’re here in early summer, make a point of sampling the local swordfish; May and June are the height of the swordfish season. The streets around Piazza Lo Sardo (also known as Piazza del Popolo) hold a good mix of rough-and-ready trattorias and more serious eating places, while the area around Piazza Cairoli is best for bar life, though some of the bars close in August when everyone’s at the beach.

FOOD SHOPPING IN MESSINA

Messina is renowned for its pastries and biscuits. There’s a cluster of classy pasticcerie, most notably Billé and Irrera on Piazza Cairoli. If you want to try something really local, look out for the pignolata, a sugary confection covered with brown or white icing. It is not as delicious as it looks. Oviesse is a convenient supermarket for food, clothes and other items on Piazza Cairoli (daily 9am–1pm & 4–8pm), while the lanes running off the square hold smart boutiques and leather shops. For a picnic lunch, tasty panini and other cold snacks are on offer at Salumeria Nucita, an alimentari at Via Garibaldi 125 (Mon–Wed & Sat 9am–1pm & 4–8pm, Thurs 9am–1pm).

CAFÉS

Billé Piazza Cairoli 7  090 240 3059. One of Piazza Cairoli’s two long-established cafés – both of them Messina institutions. Good range of cornetti and other pastries for breakfast, savouries for lunch and cakes for tempting afternoon teas. There are seats outside across the road in the piazza – though service is not always up to scratch. Mon & Wed–Sun 7.30am–11pm, later on Fri and Sat.

Irrera Piazza Cairoli 12  090 673 823,  irrera.it. Founded in 1910, this historic pasticceria makes typical Sicilian biscuits, cakes, pastries, cornetti and cannoli that are, if anything, even better than at Billé, while slick service during lunch (good sandwiches) and the aperitivo hour make this a popular spot throughout the day. Daily 8am–8.30pm.

RESTAURANTS

Le Due Sorelle Piazza Unione Europea 4  090 44 720. With only nine tables, this is a small and select trattoria. Specialities such as padella – a local version of paella – and couscous con pesce cost about €16, with main courses up to €20. Booking advised. Mon–Fri lunch & dinner, Sat & Sun dinner only; closed Aug.

Fratelli La Bufala Corso Vittorio Emanuele 1  090 662 513,  fratellilabufala.eu. A branch of the superior Neapolitan pizza chain committed to using no hydrogenated fats, glutamates or GM ingredients. Handy for the hydrofoil dock, it serves up great pizza (with buffalo mozzarella, of course) along with buffalo-meat secondi and Campanian wines. Two could eat a pizza and have a glass of wine for less than €20. Daily lunch & dinner.

Al Gattopardo Via Santa Cecilia 184  090 673 076. With tables outside on a lovely tree-lined avenue, Al Gattopardo is a Messinese institution. The pizzas are some of the best in town (try the Messinese with escarole, mozzarella, anchovies and black pepper; €7), but there are other tempting choices such as raw prawns (€12), zuppa di cozze (mussel soup; €9), and a delicious lemon risotto with prawns and cernia (grouper; €12). Meat is carefully sourced too, and even includes steaks of Irish Angus (€14). Daily lunch & dinner.

Osteria Etnea Via A Martino 38  393 898 7144. Abundant portions and low prices (all dishes €6–12) make this tidy little place near Piazza Lo Sardo popular with locals. The menu is long (specializing in fish) and the service brisk. Mon–Sat lunch & dinner.

 Al Padrino Via S. Cecilia 54–6  090 292 1000. This bare, frill-free neighbourhood trattoria specializes in traditional Sicilian fare, such as maccu (mashed fava or broad beans), melanzane al Padrino (aubergines stuffed with fresh pasta and ricotta) and pasta con legumi riposata (pasta with beans, left to rest a while after cooking so that broth thickens and flavour develops), both €6–8. A three-course meal will cost under €20. Mon–Fri lunch & dinner, Sat dinner only.

 Shawarma Via M. Giurba 8  090 712 213. Tagines, couscous and a range of potato dishes share menu space with (less recommendable) pizzas at this popular trattoria off Piazza Lo Sardo, with some outdoor seating. Hubble-bubbles and occasional belly-dancing (usually Fri & Sun) add to the atmosphere. You can eat well for under €20. Tues–Sat dinner only.

Trattoria del Popolo Piazza Lo Sardo  090 671 148. You can eat outside at this friendly trattoria, making the most of the rare calm of this corner of the city. Dishes include sarde allinguate (fried sardines dressed with vinegar) and franceschini (baby squid fried in breadcrumbs); pasta dishes cost €5–7, mains €6–10. Mon–Sat lunch & dinner; closed late Aug.

NIGHTLIFE AND ENTERTAINMENT

Exhibitions and classical concerts take place near the port at the church of Santa Maria Alemanna (Via I Settembre), while free concerts of light music are staged in Piazza del Duomo in July and August. Though they’re not put on every year, July and Aug also see free film screenings (usually at 8.30pm), generally in the Villa Mazzini public gardens near the hydrofoil dock, or nearby next to the church of San Giuliano off Via della Libertà, around the Fiera di Messina – though venues may change. If films are showing, arrive early, as these events tend to get crowded. Ask at the tourist office for details of all of the above events.

FERRAGOSTO

If you’re in Messina in midsummer, you might catch the festivals around the Feast of the Assumption, or ferragosto. Although all the villages on both sides of the Straits hold festivals around this time, with some pretty spectacular fireworks lighting up the sky on any one night, Messina’s festivities are grander, beginning around August 12, when two plaster giants (giganti) are wheeled around town, and finally stationed near the port opposite the Municipio. These are said to be Messina’s two founders, Mata and Grifone, one a white female, the other a burly Moor, and both mounted on huge steeds. On ferragosto itself, August 15, another towering carriage, the Vara, is hauled through the city centre. It’s an elaborate column supporting dozens of papier-mâché cherubs and angels, culminating in the figure of Christ stretching out his right arm to launch Mary on her way to Heaven. This unwieldy construction is towed on long ropes, pulled by hundreds of penitents – semi-naked if they’re men, all in white if they’re women – and cheered on by thousands of people along the way. The whole thing is a sweaty and frenetic performance, finishing up at Piazza del Duomo, where flowers are thrown out to the crowds, many of whom risk being crushed in the mad scramble to gather these luck-bearing charms. Late at night, one of Sicily’s best firework displays is held on the seafront near Via della Libertà.

DIRECTORY

Hospital Ospedale Policlinico, Via Consolare Valeria 1 ( 090 2211); take the tram to the Bonino terminus. For emergencies call  113.

Left luggage The office on Platform 1 at the train station (Mon–Fri 6am–4pm, Sat & Sun 6am–2pm) charges €3 per bag for 12hr, then €2 for every subsequent 12hr.

Pharmacy There’s an all-night service on a rotating basis: consult any pharmacy window to find out current farmacie notturne.

Police Carabinieri, Via Nino Bixio ( 112 or  090 771 330); Questura, for the police, Via Placida 2, near Villa Mazzini ( 113 or  090 3661).

Post office Main office at Corso Cavour 138, behind Piazza Duomo (Jan–July & Sept–Dec Mon–Fri 8am–6.30pm, Sat 8am–12.30pm; Aug Mon–Fri 8am–1.30pm, Sat 8am–12.30pm).

< Back to Messina, Taormina and the northeast

North of Messina

Several mountain or coastal destinations, all well worth a visit, are less than thirty minutes from the centre of Messina by bus or car. Mortelle is the focus for Messina’s bronzed youth in summer, who throng the orderly lidos and sleek bars and pizzerias, filling the air with the screech of motorbikes. Fine sandy beaches extend west from here, most easily accessed from such villages as Acquarone (also called Acqualadrone). If you’re driving, you might wish to follow the high-level Via Panoramica north rather than the congested coastal road, which is the route the bus takes; but make a point of taking this lower road – an extension of Via della Libertà – at least once, passing fishermen’s houses that back onto short sandy strips in areas that must once have justified their idyllic names of Paradiso, Contemplazione and Pace. In Pace, look out for the British cannons lining the esplanade, pulled out of the Straits where they were sunk during the Napoleonic Wars.

Ganzirri

Buses #79, #80 and #81 run to Ganzirri from Messina

Wedged between a salt lake (where mussels are farmed) and the sea, 10km north of central Messina, is the ramshackle fishing village of GANZIRRI. Messinese flock here in summer to eat fresh shellfish, swordfish or whatever else has been hauled in that day by the many boats operating on the lake and in the Straits. It’s a pleasant spot for a meal, though prices can be high and quality variable. Bear in mind too that traffic can be hell in the summer – whether you get here by bus or car, expect to spend quite some time in jams. Most of the trattorias are squeezed in between the lake and sea, and you can eat outside at nearly all of them.

EATING: GANZIRRI

 Lilla Currò Via Lido di Ganzirri 10  090 395 064. Signposted on the right side of the lake, it’s well worth seeking out Lilla Currò for its very reasonably priced, exquisitely cooked seafood dishes – you can enjoy a feast for €25. Booking is essential for evening meals, and service can be slow. No credit cards. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

La Sirena di Mancuso At Via Lago Grande 96  090 391 268. Fifty metres further up from Lilla Currò, La Sirena di Mancuso also puts on a very good spread, again at low prices, with lake views from its covered veranda. Lunch & dinner Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sun.

Punta del Faro

Punta del Faro (also called Capo Peloro) is the very tip of Sicily, the nearest point to mainland Italy, and on summer evenings it’s the venue for open-air free films. The lighthouse here (the faro) is dwarfed by one of the two towering electric pylons that flank either side of the Straits. No longer in use (Sicily is now tethered to the mainland electricity grid by underwater cables), the pylons remains a much-loved landmark, decked out with multicoloured lights each Christmas. Here, too, was the whirlpool where the legendary Charybdis once posed a threat to sailors – along with the rock of Scylla on the opposite shore – still remembered in the locality’s name of Cariddi.

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Savoca

Around 30km south of Messina, the small resort of Santa Teresa di Riva is the jumping-off point for the evocatively situated SAVOCA. The village sits at the end of a winding 4km run up from the coast, its houses and three churches perched on the cliffsides in clumps, and with a tattered castle (originally Saracen) topping the pile. Two pincer-like streets, Via San Michele and Via Chiesa Madre, reach around to their respective churches, the grandest being the square-towered thirteenth-century Chiesa Madre. Seated on a tiny ridge between two opposing hills, it’s a fine vantage point from which to look down the valley to the sea and across the surrounding hills. Spare a glance, too, at the house next door, lovingly restored and displaying a fifteenth-century stone-arched double window; the house is one of many in the village that have had a facelift as outsiders move in to snap up run-down cottages as second homes. These days, Savoca lies within the Taormina commuter belt and most of the people who live here work elsewhere. That’s to its advantage: during the day the streets and hillside alleys are refreshingly empty, and the medieval atmosphere still intact.

ON THE GODFATHER TRAIL

Many scenes from Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather movies were filmed in Savoca and Forza d’Agrò, both deemed rather more picturesque than Corleone, the actual setting of Mario Puzo’s novel. Fans of the film are spoilt for choice when it comes to guided tours of locations: key stopoffs are Bar Vitelli, which displays a collection of photographs taken during the filming of Godfather II – the table where Micheal Corleone sat to ask the padrone for the hand of his delightful daughter Apollonia is still in situ. You can also see the Chiesa Madre in the piazza, where they married on screen. The best tours continue to the crows’ nest village of Forza d’Agrò, perched on a spur of the Peloritani Mountains high above the sea, which featured in the third Godfather movie.

  For a tour run by enthusiastic, well-informed English-speaking guides contact Sicily Travel ( 360 397 930,  sicilytourguides.net/Godfather_tour.htm).

Cappuccini monastery

April–Sept Tues–Sat 9am–1pm & 4–7pm, Sun 4–7pm; Oct–March Tues–Sat 9am–1pm & 3–6pm, Sun 3–6pm • Donations requested

Signs in Savoca point you to the Cappuccini monastery, whose catacombs contain a selection of gruesome mummified bodies. These are the remains of local lawyers, doctors and the clergy: two hundred to three hundred years old, they stand in niches dressed in their eighteenth-century finery, the skulls of less complete colleagues lining the walls above. An added grotesque touch is the green paint with which the bodies have been daubed, the work of vandals and hard to remove without damaging the cadavers. Ask the custodian and you’ll probably be shown the church treasury as well, which holds a small collection of liturgical books and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Bibles.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SAVOCA

By bus Frequent Jonica buses (Mon–Sat only) connect Messina with Santa Teresa di Riva, from where there are six connections daily to Savoca. From Taormina, take an Interbus service to Santa Teresa and change there for Savoca and Casalvecchio.

EATING AND DRINKING

 Bar Vitelli Piazza Fossia 7  334 922 7227. Set in an appealing wood-panelled, stone-flagged eighteenth-century building, this offbeat delight was used as the setting for Michael Corleone’s betrothal to Apollonia in The Godfather. A few words of Italian might nudge the woman behind the bar into recounting her memories of the shoot – she’s something of an expert on all the Godfather films. There are numerous mementoes of other episodes in the bar’s past inside, and tables under the pergola outside. In summer, the signora will probably persuade you to sample her delicious lemon granita, which she makes daily, along with a range of snacks. Daily, usually 8am–8.30pm.

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Casalvecchio Siculo

2km from Savoca • Served by bus from Santa Teresa Riva via Savoca

The only road beyond Savoca along the ridge runs the 2km to CASALVECCHIO SICULO, which has even better views of the valley from its terraces. There’s not much to detain you here, except the quiet village atmosphere, but walk through Casalvecchio and, after about 500m, a rough (signposted) road drops away to the left, snaking down into a lush, citrus-planted valley. It’s about a twenty-minute hike to the Norman monastery of Santi Pietro e Paolo, gloriously situated on a high bank above the river. Built in the twelfth century, its battlemented facade and double domes are visible from a distance through the lemon groves. Though considered Sicily’s best example of Basilian architecture, the church betrays a strong Arabic influence, particularly in the polychromatic patterns of the exterior. If it’s locked, there should be someone around in one of the adjacent buildings with a key.

  From the church, either head back up to the main road and wait for the return bus to pass, or continue downhill for a longer walk, beyond the monastery to the River Agrò. It’s about another hour’s tramp, alongside the wide (and mostly dry) river bed to Rina, back towards the sea. The main (SS114) coastal road is signposted from Rina, and in another twenty minutes, through a small tunnel, you’re back in Santa Teresa di Riva, on the Messina–Catania bus route.

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Forza d’Agrò

The nicest spot on the coast south of Messina is the Capo Sant’Alessio, where a pinnacle cliff supports a sturdy castle; you can climb up to it, but you can’t get in. Four kilometres inland of here, atop a corkscrew road, is FORZA D’AGRÒ. Like so many Sicilian villages, it’s a breezy place defiantly crumbling all around its mostly elderly inhabitants, and with little left of the Norman castello that crowns it. A memorable clamber will take you up to the top: the streets become ever more perilous, and the stone cottages increasingly neglected and held together by rotting spars of wood. The lower parts of the village are better maintained, but not much – shops are tucked into tiny cottage interiors, and a couple of churches are locked and decrepit.

  Still, this is close enough to Taormina to attract the tour buses, which deposit their passengers in the village square, where there are a couple of bars to help idle the time away.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: FORZA D’AGRÒ

By bus Four daily Interbus buses run to Forza d’Agrò from Taormina and Letojanni.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

O Dammuseddu Via Heros Cuzari 2  0942 98 030. The perfect hill-town restaurant. Go for the abundant house antipasto, then follow with a wild mushroom dish, or some herby grilled meat. Expect to spend around €20 for a meal without wine. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

Villa Souvenir Viale delle Rimembranze  0942 721 078. If you’re tempted to overnight in Forza d’Agrò, the small and simple Villa Souvenir hotel is a reasonable option. It also has a decent restaurant, with half-board deals available on request. €70

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Taormina

TAORMINA, dominating two grand, sweeping bays from high on Monte Tauro, is Sicily’s best-known and classiest resort. Although it has no beach of its own – they are all sited quite a way below town – the outstanding remains of the classical theatre and the sheer beauty of the town’s site, framed by a distant Etna, amply compensate. Beloved of writers, artists and celebrities across the decades, it’s an expensive place, but the air of exclusivity at least is only skin-deep – at heart, what was once a small hill-village still can’t seem to believe its good luck. Much of its late medieval character remains intact, with the one main traffic-free street presenting an unbroken line of aged palazzi, flower-decked alleys and intimate piazzas. The downside is that most of the time, and particularly between June and September and at New Year and Easter, Taormina simply seethes as the narrow alleys are filled shoulder-to-shoulder with tourists. Things get a little quieter in winter, and this is also the time when the views of Etna – snowcapped to boot – are incomparably clearer, while the spring brings flamboyant hillside displays of flowering plants and shrubs. Entering Taormina’s old centre from Porta Messina, you’ll find yourself immediately on the town’s axis, Corso Umberto I, magnificently heralded by the turreted Palazzo Corvaja.

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D.H. LAWRENCE IN TAORMINA

If you’ve got twenty minutes to spare you could turn literary sleuth to see the villa in which D.H. Lawrence lived for three years in the 1920s – though there’s nothing to see except the back of a house. From Porta Messina, follow Via Cappuccini and then Via Fontana Vecchia, before dropping down to Piazza Franz Pagano. Following the road around a steep left fork – Via David Herbert Lawrence – puts you on the right track for the villa, up the hill and just around the corner. On the right-hand side of the road, the pink- and cream-coloured building, now a private house, is marked by a simple plaque reading: “D.H. Lawrence, English author, lived here 1920–1923”. He wrote many of his short stories and essays here, and much of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was supposed to have been inspired by the exploits of an Englishwoman living in Taormina who had fallen for a local farmer. Lawrence wasn’t always enamoured of the town; in a letter of December 1921 he described Corso Umberto as “one long parade of junk shops … things dearer than ever, more faked, food tiresome as it always was. If only Etna would send down 60,000,000 tons of boiling lava over the place and cauterise it away.”

Palazzo Corvaja

Corso Umberto I • Museo Siciliano di Arti e Tradizioni Popolari Tues–Sun 10am–1pm • €2.60 •  0942 6101

Palazzo Corvaja began life back in the tenth century as a defensive tower built by the Arabs. The tower still forms the body of the palazzo, while in the courtyard, Arab-style ogival windows harmonize perfectly with Gothic elements such as a staircase crowned by a Romeo-and-Juliet-style balcony.

  Within Palazzo Corvaja is the chamber where the so-called Sicilian “parliament”– actually a group of Aragonese nobles – met in 1410 to choose the next king. It now houses the tourist office and the engaging Museo Siciliano di Arti e Tradizioni Popolari, a collection of quirky folklore items ranging from painted Sicilian carts to cork-and-wax Nativity scenes. One of the highlights is the 25 panel paintings of the 1860s showing people being saved by miraculous intervention from such terrible fates as falling onto a stove or being attacked by cats.

Santa Caterina

Corso Umberto 1 • Daily 9am–8pm

Opposite Palazzo Corvaja, the church of Santa Caterina was built almost on top of a small, brick-built odeon, known as the Teatro Romano (originally used for musical recitations): peer down at it through the railings around the back, and then enter the church to take a closer look at bits of the theatre exposed in the floor of the nave.

Teatro Greco

Via del Teatro Greco • Daily 9am–1hr before sunset • €8

The crowds flowing from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele past an unbroken parade of tourist shops will point you towards Taormina’s Teatro Greco, one of Sicily’s unmissable sights – and best visited in the early morning or near closing time to avoid the throngs. Nothing, however, can detract from the site’s natural beauty. Carved out of the hillside, the theatre gives a complete panorama of the Sicilian coastline, the mountains of southern Calabria across the water and of snowcapped Etna – a glorious natural backdrop for the audiences of classical times. Despite its name, and though founded by Greeks in the third century BC, the existing remains are almost entirely Roman, dating from the end of the first century AD, a period when Taormina enjoyed great prosperity under Imperial Roman rule. The reconstruction completely changed the character of the theatre, though not always for the better – the arched apertures, niches and columns of the impressive Roman scene-building, for example, must have obscured the views of Etna that were presumably a major reason for the theatre’s original siting. As the spectacles of the Imperial Roman era were strictly gladiatorial, the stage and lower seats were cut back to provide more room, and a deep trench was dug in the orchestra to accommodate the animals and combatants.

TAORMINA’S FESTIVALS

Taormina stages festivals and parades at Christmas and Carnevale, but summer is the best time for cultural events. Between June and September, Taormina Arte ( gotaormina.com) features a varied theatre, music and dance programme, from rock bands and symphony orchestras to classical dramas, held either at the spectacular Teatro Greco or the Palazzo dei Congressi in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. Tickets cost from around €15. The events kick off with the Taormina FilmFest ( taorminafilmfest.it), which runs for a week every June, previewing new movies from around the world in their original versions on a big screen at the Teatro Greco (tickets €8–12).

  Tickets for all events are available online or at the Palazzo dei Congressi, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele.

Giardino Pubblico

Via Bagnoli Croce • Daily dawn–dusk • Free

The Giardino Pubblico were endowed by a Scot, Florence Trevelyan, who settled in Taormina in 1899 having been “invited” to leave England in the wake of a romantic liaison with the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. She also contributed the curious apiari (“beehives”) – pavilions, variously resembling rustic log cabins and stone- or brick-built pagodas, and now holding caged birds, plants and a children’s play area.

Piazza IX Aprile

Tourists and locals all collide bang in the middle of Corso Umberto I at Piazza IX Aprile, Taormina’s “balcony”. The restored twelfth-century Torre dell’Orologio (clocktower) straddles the Corso here, while sweeping views from the terrace overlook Etna and the bay. It’s hard to resist the lure of a café seat here – just be warned that you’ll be presented with a big bill, even for an espresso. There are two small churches in the square: squat fifteenth-century Sant’Agostino is now a library, while San Giuseppe’s seventeenth-century facade is adorned with plaques depicting skulls and crossbones.

Piazza Duomo

Duomo daily 8.30am–8pm

Taormina’s intimate Piazza Duomo, set on a quirky slant, makes it very clear just how small-scale Taormina was until fairly recently. Entered via an arch in the clocktower, and with a pretty seventeenth-century fountain in its centre, the square contains the battlemented Duomo, originally built in the thirteenth century, though much restored since. The interior is simple – the pink marble columns along the nave are thought to have come from the Greek theatre, while the beamed wooden ceiling is decorated with Arab-Gothic motifs.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: TAORMINA

By train One of Italy’s most attractive stations, in Sicilian-Gothic style with Art Nouveau decoration, Taormina-Giardini train station is way below town, on the water’s edge. To get up to town, you either need to take a taxi (around €15) or catch one of the Interbus buses leaving once or twice hourly (fewer on Sun) from outside the station; buy your ticket from the driver.

Destinations Castiglione di Sicilia (6 daily Mon–Sat; 45min–1hr 10min); Catania (1–2 hourly; 45min–1hr); Francavilla di Sicilia (8 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 30–55min); Gole dell’Alcantara (9 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 35–50min); Messina (1–2 hourly; 40min–1hr); Randazzo (4–5 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 55min–1hr 40min); Siracusa (4–7 daily; 2hr–2hr 30min).

By bus Most buses stop in Taormina’s bus station on Via Luigi Pirandello. Buses to the Alcantara and Randazzo leave from outside the train station, while local bus services depart hourly from Piazza San Pancrazio up to Madonna della Rocca (for the castle) and Castelmola, and down to the beach at Spisone/Letojanni.

Destinations Castelmola (hourly Mon–Sat, 9 daily Sun; 15min); Castiglione di Sicilia (2 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 20min); Catania (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, 12 daily Sun; 1hr 10min–1hr 50min); Catania airport (15 daily Mon–Sat, 11 daily Sun; 1hr 25min); Forza d’Agrò (2 daily; 40min); Francavilla di Sicilia (3 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 1hr); Giardini-Naxos (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, every 1–2hr Sun; 15min); Gole dell’Alcantara (4 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 1hr); Messina (6–7 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 55min–1hr 45min); Santa Teresa di Riva (8–9 daily Mon–Sat, 3 daily Sun; 35min).

GETTING AROUND

Taxis There are ranks at the train station ( 0942 51 150), at Porta Catania ( 0942 628 090), in Piazza San Pancrazio and in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele ( 0942 23 000).

Car and scooter rental Avis, Via S. Pancrazio 7 ( 0942 23 041); California, Via Bagnoli Croce 86 ( 0942 896 203); City, Piazza Sant’Antonio 5 ( 0942 23 161); Italia, Via Luigi Pirandello 29 ( 0942 23 973); Sicily By Car, Via Apollo Arcageta 4 ( 0942 21 252).

INFORMATION AND TOURS

Tourist information There’s a small tourist office (Mon–Fri 9am–2pm;  0942 52 189) in the train station, and another inside Palazzo Corvaja, off Piazza Vittorio Emanuele (Mon–Fri 8.30am–2.15pm & 3.30–7pm;  0942 23 243,  gate2taormina.ns0.it). Staff are extremely well informed.

Tours From Taormina, there are lots of tours are offered to Etna, the Alcantara gorge and Siracusa, or further afield to places like the Valley of the Temples and Piazza Armerina, from around €35 for a day for the Alcantara gorge and the Etna foothills to €75 for an Etna summit jeep tour. The tourist office has flyers and brochures.

A WALK TO THE CASTELLO SARACENO

It ‘s well worth taking a walk up above Taormina to the the cliff-top chapel of Madonna della Rocca and the remains of the town’s tumbledown medieval Castello Saraceno. There are glorious views over the theatre and town to the coast, and a couple of restaurants and cafés here that are perfect for a sundowner. Buses taking just a few minutes run up the winding road once or twice hourly from town, but it’s more evocative to walk up – there’s a steep processional path to the chapel (signposted “Castel Taormina/Via Crucis”) from Via Circonvallazione, starting just past the Q8 petrol station, and taking around twenty minutes.

ACCOMMODATION

Nowhere else in Sicily can match Taormina for its range of gorgeously sited places to stay (many of them elegant old villas) with sweeping views of sea and mountain. Although there are excellent deals to be had online if you book in advance, prices can be steep if you arrive on spec. Drivers should enquire whether their hotel has parking facilities, as otherwise cars have to be left in one of the car parks. Note that a city tourist tax ranging from €1 to €2.50 per person per night (depending on the category of hotel) will be added to the room rate.

PARKING IN TAORMINA

Unless there’s parking at your hotel, drivers will have to use one of the long-stay car parks signposted on the approaches to Taormina, notably outside Porta Catania at the southwestern end of town or at the Lumbi car park northeast of the centre; Lumbi car park is further from the centre, and is a lengthy walk up steps to Via Cappuccini, though a free minibus service (bus navetta) shuttles from Piazza San Pancrazio (just below Porta Messina) to and from the Lumbi car park and saves you the 10min climb. Alternatively, park near the coast at Mazzarò, and take the cable car up to town. Tariffs (€5–7 for 2hr 30min, €12.50–16 for 24hr, €20.50–28 for 48hr) are slightly higher at Porta Catania, and higher at all car parks in August.

HOTELS

 Isoco Via Salita Branco 2  0942 23 679,  isoco.it. The five rooms in this small boutique hotel are quirkily themed on such artists as Botticelli and Keith Haring, and each has its own entrance, a/c, safe and minibar, with a private bathroom across the corridor. Amazing breakfasts are served round a large table in the shady garden, where there’s also a hot tub, while the roof terrace has sunbeds and views extending north up the coast as far as Calabria. Free wi-fi. No credit cards. Closed Dec–Feb. €98

El Jebel Salita Palazzo Ciampoli  0942 625 494,  hoteleljebel.com. Taormina’s brand-new shrine to conspicuous consumption, its nine suites occupying three floors of a dandified fifteenth-century palazzo up from the main corso. Inside it’s all very Hollywood-Dubai: lavish bathrooms caked in treacly, liquorice-veined marble, gold taps, claw-foot baths and enough mirrors to make narcissists feel they’ve died and gone to heaven. The rooms themselves are more subdued, spacious and very comfortable. Service is excellent, and waiter-served breakfasts exceptional. Expect to feel exceedingly (but discreetly) pampered, especially at the spa. Excellent deals via the website. €300

La Pensione Svizzera Via Pirandello 26  0942 23 790,  pensionesvizzera.com. Just up from the bus terminal and cable-car station, this comfortable hotel has lovely views from its spacious rooms (with prices increasing by €5–10 for a sea view), 24hr bar service, free wi-fi throughout and a shuttle to a private beach. Excellent value for money. €115

San Domenico Palace Piazza San Domenico 5  0942 613 111,  thi.it. The last word in luxury, and one of the most celebrated hotels in Italy, housed in a fifteenth-century convent with gorgeous formal gardens, unsurpassable views, a Michelin-starred restaurant and stratospheric prices. Refreshingly, staff are both relaxed and gracious. Luxuriate in one of the €3000-per-night suites, and you feel you’ve died and gone to heaven, but do check the website as there are deals on rooms for a fraction of that. Rooms €316

 Villa Angela Via Leonardo da Vinci  0942 27 038,  hotelvillaangela.com. Ever wondered what rock stars do in their spare time? Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, a devotee of Taormina, plumped for opening a four-star boutique hotel, high on the Castelmola road above town. It’s a swish, contemporary take on a traditional villa, with terrific views from soaring picture windows, a pool and a terrace restaurant. The staff are especially friendly. It’s a steep walk from Taormina itself, but there’s an efficient shuttle to town and beach, and a bus stop directly outside. €220

Villa Belvedere Via Bagnoli Croce 79  0942 23 791,  villabelvedere.it. Comfortable rooms in soothing pastels, most of them with balconies with fantastic views over the marvellous pool and lavish gardens to Etna and the sea. There are also several garden suites as well as mini-apartments with cooking facilities. Look out for good deals online. Rooms €195; apartments and suites €300

Villa Carlotta Via Pirandello 81  0942 626 058,  hotelvillacarlottataormina.com. Splendidly sited above the sea among abundant subtropical vegetation – the roof garden has spectacular views of Mount Etna and the sea (very romantic and candlelit at night), and a terraced garden with a small pool is set among citrus and olive trees, bougainvillea and mint, lying between the walls of an old chapel and remains of a Romano-Byzantine cemetery. There’s a comfortable, homey sitting room with books, games and snooze-inducing sofas, and all the stylish rooms but one have bathtubs. Good deals on the website. €220

Villa Schuler Piazzetta Bastione  0942 23 481,  villaschuler.com. This lovely old hotel has been in the same family of German émigrés for a century, and retains the feel of an elegant family-run pensione (they take no tour groups). Decor retains a quiet vintage feel, without being overstated, there are great views from its rooms and terrace, and a beautiful garden behind. Worth checking the website for special offers. €150

Villa Taormina Via T. Fazzello 39  0942 620 072,  hotelvillataormina.com. A superior four-star that oozes old-fashioned charm – and with only eight antique-filled rooms, the feel is more private house party than hotel. It’s also blessedly quiet, off the main drag, and with a terrace that has a hot tub and excellent views. Check online for the best last-minute deals. Parking and beach shuttle available. Closed Nov–Feb. €220

HOSTELS AND B&BS

Casa Grazia Via Iallia Bassia 20  0942 24 776,  casagrazia.com. You won’t find accommodation much cheaper than this in the centre, nor with such positively mothering management. Most of the basic but clean rooms have fridges, private bathrooms and balconies – the best ones are at the top, with use of a panoramic terrace. Free wi-fi. No credit cards. €70

Josepha B&B Vico Zecca 31  0942 628 871 or  348 844 2971,  bbtaormina.com. In a little courtyard, through a hacked-out archway immediately inside the Porta Messina, this has two doubles and two singles, sharing two bathrooms. There’s also a kitchen, a terrace and laundry facilities for guests. It’s pretty flexible, since families or groups can rent all or part of the building. Breakfast is taken at a nearby bar. No credit cards. €70

Taormina’s Odyssey Via Paternò di Biscari 13  0942 24 533 or  349 810 7733,  taorminaodyssey.com. Near Porta Catania, this homely and comfortable place is more of a B&B than a hostel, with four double rooms (some with bunk-beds) and two dorms. All rooms have a/c and TV, and there’s a kitchen and even a terrace. It is understandably popular, so book well ahead. Dorms €20; bunk-bed doubles €48; doubles €60

Villa Floresta Via Damiano Rosso 1  0942 620 184 or  331 708 0115,  villafloresta.it. Pleasant, family-run B&B in a nineteenth-century palazzo, tucked into a courtyard with a crumbling fifteenth-century staircase behind Piazza del Duomo. Most rooms have balconies, with a choice between a view of the sea or the Duomo. €90

Villa Greta Via Leonardo da Vinci 41  0942 28 286,  villagreta.it. A 15min walk out of town on the road up to Castelmola, this family-run place has superb balcony views, as well as a dining room with good home cooking. In winter, there’s tea with complimentary home-made cakes and biscuits. €108

 Villa Sara Via Leonardo da Vinci 55  0942 28 138,  villasara.net. This exceptional B&B is a 15min walk (or a brief bus ride) up the road to Castelmola. It doesn’t look much from the outside, but behind the bare walls is a gracious two-storey apartment where a friendly family rent out three spacious rooms, each with its own bathroom and large terrace commanding great views over Taormina, Etna and the sea. €90

EATING AND DRINKING

Eating out in Taormina can be very expensive, though there are plenty of places offering competitively priced set menus. While there are lots of restaurants, menus are pretty standard across the board, although a few at the top end stand out as pretty special. Because of the demand, pizzas are widely available here at lunchtime too (unlike most other places in Sicily), usually costing €8–10. Taormina’s cafés and bars are particularly pricey, though. Barring a few chic retreats, Taormina’s drinking scene isn’t especially exclusive, with people milling around the streets all night in summer, hopping from bar to bar until the small hours. There’s also a fairly discreet gay scene, mostly centred on the style bars around Piazza Paladini. At least the buzzing evening passeggiata along the Corso is free.

RESTAURANTS

Casa Grugno Via Santa Maria dei Greci  0942 21 208,  casagrugno.it. Still finding its feet after the departure of Michelin-starred chef Andreas Zangerl, but the courtyard remains a lovely romantic place for fine dining. There are three fixed-price menus, at €40, €50 and €60, excluding wine. Closed lunchtime; Nov–April closed Sun, also closed Jan & Feb.

La Cisterna del Moro Via Bonifacio 1  0942 23 001. This is basically an all-day pizza joint – they are good and crisp – though with the low lights and a bougainvillea-draped terrace it’s also a romantic spot for local couples on a night out. Pizzas €6.50–10. Daily noon–midnight; closed Nov.

Al Duomo Vico Ebrei 11  0942 625 656,  ristorantealduomo.it. Pleasant restaurant with a commitment to local ingredients and local dishes such as maccu (broad bean soup), lamb stew and pasta with sardines and wild fennel. Mains cost €20–23, and the tasting menu rings in at €60. There’s a lovely terrace above the Duomo square and a simple, pretty interior. Daily lunch & dinner; closed Mon Nov–March.

Al Giardino Via Bagnoli Croce 84  0942 23 453,  algiardino.net. With pasta at €8–10 and standard meat and fish dishes from €10, this is what passes for inexpensive in Taormina. It’s in an out-of-the-way spot opposite the public gardens, and is usually busy, with amiable and enthusiastic service. Daily lunch & dinner.

 Maffei’s Via San Domenico de Guzman 1  0942 24 055,  ristorantemaffeis.com. If you want one really good fish meal, this formal but not overpowering restaurant is the place. From sea bass to lobster, the day’s specials (from €18, whole fish €6 per 100g) are written on the board, while oysters, sea urchins, pastas and carpaccios are offered as appetizers. English-speaking staff guide you through the menu, and all you can hear on the bougainvillea-covered terrace is the gentle clatter of cutlery and contented murmurs. It’s small, so book ahead in the evening. Daily lunch & dinner.

Mamma Rosa Via Naumachia 10  0942 24 361. This does a roaring trade in forno a legna pizzas (€6.50–10), served at tables spilling down the stepped alley. There’s also a full menu, though you’ll easily pay €30 a head for a couple of courses and wine. Daily lunch & dinner; closed Tues Nov–Feb.

 Vecchia Taormina Vico Ebrei 3  0942 625 589. This bustling pizzeria has a stack of olive wood outside the door for the fire, and tables outside in a sheltered courtyard. Pizzas (from €6.90) are light, crispy, blisteringly hot and also available at lunchtime. Daily lunch & dinner.

Vicolo Stretto Vicolo Stretto 6  0942 625 554. Reached up the slimmest of alleys off the Corso, by Piazza IX Aprile, this is a chic place to try “real Sicilian cuisine”, from pasta with swordfish and mint to beef in a Nero d’Avola wine sauce; mains range €16–22, though fresh fish is sold by weight (around €6 per 100g). There’s a small terrace for eating al fresco. Daily lunch & dinner.

 A’Zammara Via Fratelli Bandiera 15  0942 24 408,  azammara.it. Romantic place where you sit in a garden of orange trees eating the likes of home-made tagliolini with prawns and pistachios, the latter grown in nearby Bronte (€12.50); or involtini di pesce spada, swordfish wrapped around cheese and breadcrumbs (€16). Expect to pay around €40 for a full meal including wine. Daily lunch & dinner; closed Wed Oct–July.

CAFÉS AND BARS

Arco Rosso Via Naumachia 7 (no phone). This proper little old-fashioned bar is quite a rarity. Tucked down steps just off the Corso, it sells wine by the glass or bottle and doesn’t charge the earth for it. Scrummy bruschetta and sandwiches too. Mon–Tues & Thurs–Sun 8am–8pm.

Bam Bar Via Di Giovanni 45  0942 24 355. Taormina’s no. 1 spot for ice cream and granitas, coming in a lip-smacking range of flavours – recommended choices include watermelon, coffee with almond and nutella. The owner will show you photos of all the celebs who have dropped by. Daily 9am–late.

Daiquiri Lounge Piazza Duomo  0942 625 703. Specializing (as you might guess) in daiquiris, this pleasant, perfectly located bar makes a nice place for an aperitivo (served with a generous selection of nibbles) or an after-dinner drink. Daily 7pm–late.

Al Grappola d’Uva Via Bagnoli Croce 6–8  0942 625 874. Friendly, unpretentious wine bar – a good place to sample Etna wines with olives and local cheeses as you sip a good glass of wine (€4 including nibbles). They can also organize tours of Etna’s vineyards. Daily 11am–late.

Morgana Bar Scesa Morgana 4  0942 620 056. International party place off Corso Umberto I, for serious cocktail consumption. Sexy violet velvet inside, a cool outdoor space, and nightly DJ sets. Daily 7pm–late.

Re di Bastoni Corso Umberto I  0942 23 037. Funky, Bohemian pub that is quite alternative for Taormina, and attracts a lively crowd. Daily, usually 6pm–late; closed Mon in winter.

Wunderbar Café Piazza IX Aprile  0942 625 302. Once the haunt of Garbo and Fassbinder, this remains Taormina’s favoured spot for the see-and-be-seen brigade, with outdoor seats beneath the clocktower and a determinedly elitist pricing policy. The piano is wheeled out every night for ivory-tinkling beneath the stars. Go for an Aperol spritz, and sip it slowly as you people-watch. Daily 9am–late.

SHOPPING IN TAORMINA

Corso Umberto I can lay fair claim to be the flashiest shopping street in southern Italy, and here you’ll have no trouble tracking down a Gucci bag, a €10,000 necklace or a genuine Baroque candelabra. Of course, you can also pick up mass-produced ceramic dishes, Sicilian puppets, model Etnas and AC Milan football shirts. The bulk of the out-and-out tourist gift shops are up Via Teatro Greco on the way to the theatre, but for quirkier boutiques and souvenirs, delve into the side alleys and stepped streets off the Corso.

  A few outlets are especially worth seeking out. The ceramic workshop at Kerameion, Corso Umberto I 198 (daily 9am–8.30pm; closed Sun Nov–March;  339 207 9032,  kerameion.com), turns out tiles, plates, vases and espresso cups, among other items. At Corso Umberto I 27, corner Via F. Ingegnere (daily 9am–9.30pm;  0942 23 544,  cacopardoarteantica.com), Signor Pancrazio’s grandmother first opened the Arte Antica Cacopardo antiques store in 1902 (he’s got postcards showing her sitting outside it), and he continues to set out the furniture, porcelain and objets on the pavement every day, rain or shine.

  There’s also a daily indoor market (Mon–Sat) for fruit and veg off Via Cappuccini, and a weekly Wednesday market for household items, above town at Parcheggio von Gloeden, off Via Leonardo da Vinci; both are morning affairs, open till around 1.30pm. The Upim/Punto SMA supermarket (Mon–Sat 9am–1pm & 4–8pm) is outside Porta Catania (and to the right) on Via Apollo Arcageta.

DIRECTORY

Hospital Ospedale San Vincenzo, in Via Crocefisso, Contrada Sirina, south of Porta Catania ( 0942 5791; for emergencies  0942 579 297).

Pharmacy British Pharmacy, Corso Umberto I 152, corner of Piazza IX Aprile (June–Sept daily 8.30am–9.30pm, Oct–May Mon–Fri 8.30am–1pm & 3.30–8pm;  0942 625 735); outside these hours pharmacies operate according to a rota system, indicated on pharmacy doors.

Police Carabinieri, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 4 ( 0942 23 232 or  112).

Post office Piazza Sant’Antonio, outside Porta Catania (Mon–Fri 8am–6.30pm, Sat 8.30am–1pm).

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Around Taormina

Taormina is overlooked by the lofty mountain village of Castelmola, visited for the superb views in all directions, and an easy trip from town. The coastline below Taormina, north and south, is immensely appealing – a mixture of grottoes, rocky coves and good sand beaches – although much of it is either sectioned off as private lidos (which you have to pay to use; prices vary from around €5 to €15 a day) or simply gets very packed in summer. Easiest to reach, by bus or cable car, are the small, stony stretches around Mazzarò. For decent expanses of sand you’ll have to travel to Giardini-Naxos, a 5km, fifteen-minute bus ride south of Taormina. Cheaper and less pretentious than Taormina, it’s very much a separate town, with its own holiday trade and nightlife.

Castelmola

Drivers should park in the car park before entering the village; hourly buses from Taormina (15min) stop 200m below the main square. To walk up from the Castello Saraceno (around 1hr), take the signposted concrete path

Some 5km above Taormina, the tiny hill-village of Castelmola seems to sprout out of the severe crag beneath it, with just a jumble of precipitous alleys to explore and the remnants of a long-demolished castle. Hardly surprisingly, it is entirely given over to tourism, with souvenir shops and up to a dozen bars and restaurants flanking the cobbles.

  Above Castelmola, intrepid hikers can embark on the roughly two-hour climb to the top of Monte Vénere (885m), the highest peak hereabouts. The walk down from Castelmola is much easier than the ascent, and the views are better, too; it’s an easy fifteen minutes to Madonna della Rocca, thirty minutes to town.

EATING AND DRINKING: CASTELMOLA

Bar San Giorgio Piazza Sant’Antonio  0942 28 228. This bar in the main square is the doyen of Castelmola, purveying drinks and views for decades, as the old newspaper cuttings in the corner attest. Try a glass of vino alla mandorla (almond wine) here, the sweet local brew. Daily, usually 8am–10pm.

Bar Turrisi Piazza Duomo  0942 28 181. The decor here is dedicated to the phallus in all its manifestations, and without the slightest hint of irony. The views from the terrace are good too – but probably best not to take the kids. Daily, usually 10am–1am.

Mazzarò

There’s a cable-car (funivia) service from Taormina to Mazzarò (Mon 8.45am–8pm, Tues–Sun 8am–8pm, until 1am daily in summer; €3, weekly pass €30); the station is on Via Luigi Pirandello, between Porta Messina and the bus terminal

The closest beaches to Taormina are the scintillating pebbled coves at MAZZARÒ, which you can reach by cable car (funivia) from Via Luigi Pirandello in Taormina. There’s also a steep path, which starts just below the cable-car station. Of the two beaches, the southernmost is usually the most packed, fronting its much-photographed islet, the Isola Bella, protected as a marine-life sanctuary. The waters are remarkably clear, and you can rent boats, snorkelling and scuba gear down here.

FROM TOP TAORMINA; ISOLA BELLA

Spisone

Hourly buses from Taormina’s Piazza San Pancrazio run to Spisone, passing Isola Bella and Mazzarò on the way; there’s also the Linea beach bus, departing from Piazza San Pancrazio (7daily; €1).

A little further north from Mazzarò are the beach bars and restaurants at SPISONE, which you can either walk to from Mazzarò (10min) or directly down from Taormina (around 30min); take the path from below the cemetery, off Via Guardiola Vecchia.

Giardini-Naxos

The best sand beaches close to Taormina are those at GIARDINI-NAXOS, south of town, where a long strip of sand curves around the wide bay, backed by a busy promenade of bars, cafés, restaurants and hotels. It’s much more of a resort in the Italian style than Taormina – packed and noisy until late September each year, and then largely drawing up the shutters until the following spring. Half of the beach is free (“spiaggia libera”), although the better sands further around the bay towards the cape are partitioned off as private lidos, complete with sun-loungers, shades, watersports gear, bars and restaurants.

Greek colony excavations

Daily 9am until 1hr before sunset • €3

Significantly, Giardini-Naxos bay was the site of the first Greek colony in Sicily. As an obvious stop for ships sailing between Greece and southern Italy, there was a settlement here by 734 BC, named Naxos after the Greek island from which the colonists came, though it was never very important. The excavations on the site of the ancient settlement lie right on the cape, Capo Schisò, with the entrance right by La Sirena restaurant, overlooking the harbour. The remains are disappointingly sketchy, though they stretch across a large area of the cape and it’s pleasant to stroll through the olive and lemon groves around the site. There’s scarcely any interpretation of what you’re seeing – scant foundations of a large, gridded town and a long stretch of ancient, lava-built city wall – and the small museum on site that houses some of the finds doesn’t really help either.

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The Alcantara valley

Around 2400 BC, an eruption of the Monte Moia volcano, at the head of the Alcantara valley, smothered the river and filled the valley with lava. Over four millennia, the Alcantara river has carved its way through the deposits of slick grey basalt, forming the magnificent gorge, the Gola di Alcantara, and scooping the rock into all manner of strange, sculptural formations. It is a lovely drive from Taormina, some 20km to the east, through gentle hills covered with citrus groves, olive trees and wild flowers, and there are a couple of beguiling towns to visit, namely Francavilla and, more notably, Castiglione di Sicilia. The road through the valley runs over and alongside the river, and the various bridges are a reminder that the name, Alcantara, is a corruption of the Arabic word for bridge.

VISITING THE ALCANTARA GORGE

There are numerous tours to the Alcantara gorge on offer in Taormina, but you can do the trip yourself easily enough, as four buses a day (1 on Sun) run out this way from Taormina’s bus terminal. It’s an hour’s ride to the main entrance to the Gole dell’Alcantara, where there’s a car park, bar and restaurant. The gorge is protected as the Parco Fluviale dell’Alcantara ( parcoalcantara.it), but access (daily 9am–sunset) is controlled by the Terralcantara office at the main entrance, where you pay €8 to descend in a lift to the bottom and to follow a geological and botanical itinerary extending for 1.5km above the river. There’s also a free public entrance, 200m beyond the main entrance (Francavilla direction), though it’s 200 steps down and back. Within the gorge, you can rent waders and wetsuits in summer in order to slosh along the river (it’s always icy) through pools and into the main gorge. Terralcantara ( 0942 985 010,  terralcantara.it) organizes river-trekking and canyoning expeditions (€18 and €40 respectively) which you can book at the ticket office. Note that the last bus back to Taormina leaves at 6.15pm.

Francavilla di Sicilia

If you want to escape the crowds at the Alcantara gorge, continue another 4km to the largely modern town of Francavilla di Sicilia. Set alongside the river and overlooked by the few surviving walls of its toothy old hillside castle, this was the site of one of the bloodiest battles fought in Sicily, when the Austrian army (given logistical support by the British) engaged with the Spanish in 1719, with obvious result apart from the loss of some 8000 lives. There’s a path up to the ruins, and although much of the town is newly built there’s a fair amount of interest in the couple of old central streets. From below the castle a well-marked path winds down to the river at La Gurne, through groves of citrus and nut trees. Here you’ll find a series of waterfalls and natural round ponds where you can swim without the crowds.

Convento dei Cappuccini

Easter–Oct daily 11am–1pm & 3.30pm–sunset; in winter call ahead as hours vary • €2.50 •  0942 981 017 or  338 941 8324

Taking the signposted right turn as you approach Francavilla di Sicilia, you might drop in to the Convento dei Cappuccini that peers over town and river, where a modest little museum shows how the monks – now reduced to two – passed their time in baking, brewing and crafting. You can also inspect the herbarium and buy some of their honey, perfumes or almond- or lemon-flavoured liqueurs.

ACCOMMODATION: FRANCAVILLA DI SICILIA

Hotel d’Orange d’Alcantara Via dei Mulini  0942 981 374,  hoteldorange.it. On the way into Francavilla from the Alcantara gorge, this friendly, family-run three-star has a small pool and a restaurant-pizzeria; the hotel can rent you a car, book you onto local tours and dispense advice about hikes in the area. Excellent deals via the website. €55

Castiglione di Sicilia

The nicest place to stay (and eat) in the Alcantara valley is Castiglione di Sicilia. Fused to a hilltop high above the valley, the town’s lovely weather-eroded houses with pantiled roofs cluster below the remains of its castle. The numerous church spires and the lofty, ruined rock-built castle make an inviting target as you approach up the switchback road, and it’s easy to spend a couple of hours just wandering the quiet streets of this old mountain settlement. You can meander up as far as a small piazza at the top of town – with fabulous views of Etna – where there’s a flight of steps leading up to the shattered castle, or Fortezza Greca (always open), supposedly founded in the fifth century BC by Greek exiles from nearby Naxos and offering grand panoramic views.

  Just outside Castiglione in the valley below (and signposted from town) is a perfectly restored Byzantine chapel known as La Cuba for its perfect symmetry. Behind La Cuba, a path leads to the river where there are little waterfalls and pools.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: CASTIGLIONE DI SICILIA

Alcantara Formaggi Via Federico II  0942 984 268. A small artisan cheese factory where the Camiglia family produce and sell a range of traditional and inventive cheeses, mostly made of local sheep’s milk. Mon–Sat 8am–1pm & 4.30–6pm.

Belvedere d’Alcantara  0942 984 037. A short walk beyond the piazza, and well signposted all over town, this excellent restaurant has a rooftop terrace that takes full advantage of the soaring views, as well as a €20 tourist menu and pizzas in the evening. Tues–Sun, lunch & dinner.

Hotel Federico II Via Maggiore Baracca 2  0942 980 368,  hotelfedericosecondo.com. A chic, smart and reasonably priced little hotel with an excellent restaurant just off the main piazza. The restaurant, Sine Tempore (daily lunch & dinner; closed Wed if there are no hotel guests), serves local produce to great effect in simple, tasty dishes. The mixed antipasto (€10) is a great way of trying lots of local goodies, while to follow there is tagliatelle Federico Secondo (with porcini mushrooms, courgettes and pancetta; €9) or hand-made ravioli dressed with pistachios from Bronte (€10). If you’re lucky there will be fresh ricotta warm from the factory at lunchtime and breakfast. €100

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