Messina is the city that most visitors to Sicily pass through without stopping. They arrive by ferry from the mainland, or by cruise ship, or by train through the undersea cable, and most of them are already thinking about Taormina, which is 45 minutes south, or Etna, which is an hour away. This is understandable. Messina is not Taormina. It has not been preserved in amber for the tourist gaze. It has been destroyed twice in the 20th century alone the earthquake of 1908, which killed between 75,000 and 200,000 people in one of the worst natural disasters in European history, and the Allied bombing campaign of 1943, which reduced what had been rebuilt to rubble again and what stands today is a city that has reconstituted itself from repeated catastrophe with a specific quality of resilience that its monuments, however impressive, do not fully communicate.
But Messina does have monuments. It has the largest astronomical clock in the world. It has two Renaissance fountains by a student of Michelangelo. It has a Caravaggio. It has the Strait the channel between Sicily and Calabria where Odysseus encountered Scylla and Charybdis, where the fastest currents in the Mediterranean run, and where the felucca boats have been catching swordfish with techniques unchanged since the Greek colonisation of the island. It has some of the finest fresh seafood in eastern Sicily. And it has Ganzirri, the lagoon village 10 kilometres north where mussels and clams are farmed in the brackish lakes separated from the Strait by a narrow strip of land. For a city that most visitors give half a day, Messina is considerably more interesting than its reputation suggests.
In this guide
- The Cathedral and the Astronomical Clock
- The Renaissance fountains
- The Regional Museum and the Caravaggio
- Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani
- The Strait of Messina
- Ganzirri and the lagoon villages
- What to eat in Messina
- Day trips from Messina
- Practical tips
- FAQ
Messina quick facts
- How long to visit: Half day for the centre; full day with Ganzirri and the waterfront
- Don’t miss: The astronomical clock at noon, the Caravaggio at the Regional Museum, pesce spada alla ghiotta
- Best for day trips: Taormina (45 min), Mount Etna (1 hr), Savoca (30 min)
- Getting there: Ferry from Villa San Giovanni (20 min); train from Palermo (3 hrs), Catania (1.5 hrs), Taormina (45 min)
- Cruise port: Central, walkable to all main sights in 10 to 15 minutes
The Cathedral and the Astronomical Clock
The Duomo di Messina is the central monument of the city and the one that most clearly expresses the specific historical experience of Messina a building of great age and beauty that has been destroyed and rebuilt twice in living memory, each time attempting to recover something of what was lost. The original Norman cathedral was built under Roger II and consecrated in 1197 as one of the finest churches of the Norman kingdom of Sicily. The earthquake of 1908 collapsed most of it. The 1943 bombing destroyed what had been rebuilt. The cathedral that stands today on Piazza del Duomo is a careful reconstruction, preserving the Norman facade and the general disposition of the original while the interior reflects the successive phases of rebuilding.
The bell tower to the right of the cathedral houses the largest astronomical clock in the world a mechanical marvel installed in 1933 with 54 gilded bronze statues that perform a daily show at the stroke of noon. As the clock strikes twelve, a sequence of automated figures enacts scenes from biblical and Messinese history: the lion roars, the rooster crows, a dove descends, the seven days of creation unfold, and the Dea di Messina (the goddess of the city) turns to bless the Strait. The full performance lasts approximately ten minutes and is accompanied by Schubert’s Ave Maria playing from the tower. Arrive in Piazza del Duomo by 11.45am and take a position with a clear sightline to the tower. The clock is free to watch from the piazza; entry to the tower itself costs approximately €4 to €5 and provides a close view of the mechanisms and bronze figures from each floor.
In front of the cathedral, the Fontana di Orione (see below) anchors the piazza with the same quality of architectural ambition that the clock tower expresses in a different register.
The Renaissance Fountains
Messina has two exceptional Renaissance fountains, both the work of Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, a Florentine sculptor who was among the most accomplished students of Michelangelo and who spent five years in the city in the 1550s leaving a permanent mark on its public space.
The Fontana di Orione in Piazza del Duomo was completed in 1553 to celebrate the arrival of running water in Messina from a new aqueduct a civic achievement the city chose to commemorate with a sculptural programme of unusual ambition. The fountain depicts Orion, the mythical founder of Messina, reclining above three tiers of figures representing the rivers of Sicily (the Nile, the Tiber, the Ebro and the Camaro), with mythological scenes in the basins below. The art historian Bernard Berenson called it one of the finest Renaissance fountains in Italy, and the assessment is accurate: the quality of the carving, the compositional coherence of the whole and the specific civic pride the fountain expresses are of a higher standard than most public commissions of the period.
The Fontana del Nettuno on the seafront Lungomare, also by Montorsoli and dated 1557, depicts Neptune commanding the waters of the Strait an allegory of human dominion over the notoriously dangerous currents that Odysseus navigated in the Odyssey. The original was damaged in the 1908 earthquake and the version on the Lungomare today is a faithful replica; the original figures recovered after the earthquake are displayed in the Regional Museum.
The Regional Museum and the Caravaggio
The Museo Regionale Interdisciplinare di Messina, on the northern waterfront beyond the port, is the most significant museum in northeastern Sicily and the one most consistently overlooked by visitors concentrating their time on the cathedral and the clock. Its collection includes works by Antonello da Messina the 15th-century Sicilian painter who is credited with introducing Flemish oil painting technique to Italy and whose portrait style influenced the entire subsequent development of Italian Renaissance painting and two large-format paintings by Caravaggio, commissioned during the painter’s Sicilian period of 1608 to 1609.
The Caravaggio “Resurrection of Lazarus” (1609) and “Adoration of the Shepherds” (1609) were executed during the most intense and psychologically turbulent phase of the painter’s career he was fleeing a murder conviction in Rome and had recently escaped imprisonment by the Knights of Malta. The Messina paintings show Caravaggio at his most dramatic and technically accomplished: the Lazarus, nearly four metres tall, is one of the most powerful single paintings produced in 17th-century Italy. Finding it in a regional museum in a city that most visitors spend half a day in gives the encounter a quality that the Louvre or the Uffizi cannot provide.
The museum also houses the original figures from the Fontana del Nettuno, the 15th-century polyptych paintings recovered from various Messina churches after the earthquake, and a significant collection of Byzantine and Norman-era art. Allow at least 90 minutes. Entry costs approximately €8.
Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani
The Chiesa Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, a few minutes’ walk from the cathedral, is the most historically significant Norman-era church surviving in Messina and one of the few buildings to have partially withstood the 1908 earthquake. Built in the 12th century on the site of a Roman temple (and before that, according to tradition, on the site of a Greek temple dedicated to Neptune), the church was founded under Norman rule and preserves in its apse and transept the specific combination of Arab-Norman architecture that characterises the finest 12th-century buildings of the island. The exterior blind arcading and the carved stone details are of a quality that survived the earthquake better than the Norman cathedral.
Entry is free. Opening hours are limited to mornings (typically 8.30am to 10.30am); confirm current hours on arrival. Inside, a painting of the Annunciation attributed to Antonello da Messina is the primary artistic attraction.
The Strait of Messina
The Strait of Messina the 3.2-kilometre channel between Sicily and the Calabrian coast of mainland Italy is one of the most historically charged stretches of water in the Mediterranean. Homer placed Scylla and Charybdis here: the six-headed monster on the Calabrian shore and the whirlpool on the Sicilian side, between which Odysseus navigated with the loss of six crew members. The identification is not arbitrary the currents in the Strait are genuinely dangerous, running at up to 9 knots at peak flow and creating complex upwelling patterns that concentrate marine life at the surface and make it one of the most productive fishing channels in the Italian seas.
The swordfish fishing from the Strait is one of the most specific and most visually distinctive traditional practices in Sicily. The felucca boats long, narrow wooden vessels with a crow’s nest mast of 20 to 25 metres and a bowsprit of similar length position a lookout at the top of the mast to spot swordfish from above the waterline, then direct the boat to intercept. The spearman at the end of the bowsprit makes the catch. The technique is documented from antiquity and is still used by the traditional fishing families of the Messina coast, though the swordfish population and the number of active felucche have both declined significantly since the 1970s.
The waterfront promenade (Lungomare) offers the best view of the Strait from land: Calabria is clearly visible across the water on clear days, the ferry traffic runs continuously, and the specific quality of the light on the narrow channel in the late afternoon is one of the more impressive natural spectacles available in the city. The Madonnina del Porto statue at the end of the San Raineri pier a gilded bronze Madonna on a 60-metre column, blessing the ships entering the harbour is the most photographed landmark of the Messina waterfront.
Ganzirri and the Lagoon Villages
Ten kilometres north of the city centre, the twin lakes of Ganzirri separated from the Strait by a narrow strip of land at Capo Peloro, the northeasternmost point of Sicily form a brackish lagoon environment that has supported mussel and clam farming for centuries. The village of Ganzirri around the lake shores is the finest place to eat fresh seafood in the Messina area: the restaurants here serve mussels, clams, oysters and datteri di mare (date mussels, technically protected but served by some establishments) from the farms visible in the lake, alongside the swordfish and other Strait fish that the local boats bring in.
The narrow strip of land at Capo Peloro, where the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas meet at the tip of Sicily, has a specific atmospheric quality the sea on both sides of a strip barely 200 metres wide, the view across to Calabria and back along the Sicilian coast in both directions, the old windmills and the Torre Faro lighthouse at the extremity of the point. In spring (April to May), Capo Peloro is one of the best raptor migration observation points in the Mediterranean, as thousands of honey buzzards, short-toed eagles and other raptors cross the narrowest point of the Strait on their northward migration. Ganzirri is 10 minutes by car or taxi from the city centre.
What to Eat in Messina
Messina’s most specific dish is pesce spada alla ghiotta swordfish cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, olives, capers, celery and onion, the combination of sweet, sour and saline that is characteristic of the Sicilian agrodolce tradition. The swordfish from the Strait has a specific flavour quality associated with the strong currents and rich feeding of the channel; at the restaurants of the waterfront and of Ganzirri, ordered fresh from the morning catch, it is one of the finest fish dishes in eastern Sicily.
The pignolata messinese is the most specific sweet of the city small fried dough balls glazed in two colours: white lemon glaze on half and dark chocolate glaze on the other half, served together as a single presentation. The combination reflects the same sweet-and-bitter aesthetic that appears in Messina’s other food traditions and is specific enough to the city that it is not commonly found elsewhere in Sicily. Every pasticceria in central Messina sells it; Bar Irrera on Piazza Cairoli is the historic address for both pignolata and granita in the city.
The granita in Messina has a specific local tradition: the “mezza con panna” half granita, half fresh whipped cream served with a brioche col tuppo, is the classic Messinese breakfast format and one of the finest versions of the granita con brioche tradition available in northeastern Sicily. The coffee granita is the most specifically local flavour; the almond and lemon versions are also excellent.
For the broader Sicilian food picture, read our complete Sicilian food guide and our Sicilian street food guide.
👉 MESSINA WALKING TOUR CATHEDRAL, CLOCK AND CARAVAGGIO
A guided walking tour of Messina’s historic centre the astronomical clock at noon, the Norman cathedral and its Renaissance fountains, the Regional Museum with its two Caravaggio paintings and the waterfront Strait. The most efficient way to cover the city’s essential attractions with context.
👉 SEE THE BEST MESSINA WALKING TOUR HERE
Day Trips from Messina
Taormina is 45 minutes south by car or train and the most natural day trip from Messina the Greek theatre, Isola Bella and the clifftop town above the Ionian Sea are within easy reach for a full day’s excursion. Read our complete Taormina guide.
Mount Etna is approximately 1 hour south on the A18 motorway. A Messina-based visitor can reach the Rifugio Sapienza departure point for the cable car and jeep tour in time for a morning ascent and return to Messina by early evening. Read our complete Mount Etna guide.
Savoca, 30 minutes south in the hills above the Ionian coast, is the village where Francis Ford Coppola filmed scenes of The Godfather the Bar Vitelli, the medieval streets, the Capuchin convent with its mummified friars. For visitors with Godfather connections, it is the most specific film location experience available in eastern Sicily. Read our complete guide to Sicilian villages.
The Aeolian Islands are accessible by hydrofoil from Milazzo, 45 minutes west of Messina. A day trip to Lipari and Vulcano is possible from Messina with an early start; Stromboli requires an overnight. Read our complete Aeolian Islands guide.
👉 TAORMINA AND MOUNT ETNA DAY TRIP FROM MESSINA
A full-day guided excursion from Messina combining the Greek theatre and clifftop town of Taormina with a cable car and jeep tour of Mount Etna’s summit craters. The most popular and most complete eastern Sicily day trip available from the Messina port.
👉SEE THE BEST TAORMINA AND MOUNT ETNA DAY TRIP HERE
👉 RENT A CAR
Messina is the ideal starting point for a Sicily road trip collect a rental car at Messina port and begin the eastern coast circuit south to Taormina, Etna, Catania and Syracuse. Compare prices and book in advance on DiscoverCars.
👉COMPARE THE BEST RENTAL CARS HERE
Practical Tips for Visiting Messina
The historic centre of Messina is compact and walkable from the ferry terminal and cruise port. The cathedral, the fountains and the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani are all within 10 minutes’ walk of the port; the Regional Museum is 15 minutes north along the waterfront.
For the astronomical clock performance, arrive at Piazza del Duomo by 11.45am. The show lasts approximately 10 minutes and the square fills on summer mornings; positioning yourself on the north side of the piazza gives the best viewing angle on the tower.
The Regional Museum is north of the city centre and is best reached by taxi or bus rather than on foot (approximately 20 minutes’ walk from the cathedral). Confirm current opening hours before visiting the museum has had irregular opening schedules in recent years.
Messina is the most convenient entry point to Sicily for visitors arriving from mainland Italy. The ferry crossing from Villa San Giovanni takes 20 minutes; from Reggio Calabria 30 minutes. Ferries run continuously throughout the day. Messina is also the northern terminus of the A18 motorway south along the Ionian coast to Catania and Syracuse.
Frequently Asked Questions about Messina
Is Messina worth visiting?
Yes, though with realistic expectations. Messina is not Taormina or Syracuse in terms of visual beauty or density of monuments. But it has the largest astronomical clock in the world, two Caravaggio paintings in its Regional Museum, two exceptional Renaissance fountains and the most historically significant strait in the Mediterranean. For visitors with half a day between the ferry arrival and a train south, the cathedral, the clock at noon and the Regional Museum constitute a worthwhile stop.
How long do you need in Messina?
Half a day (4 to 5 hours) covers the historic centre comfortably the cathedral and clock, the fountains, the Santissima Annunziata, lunch at a waterfront trattoria and a walk along the Lungomare. A full day allows the Regional Museum and Ganzirri in addition. Overnight visitors can combine the city with a Taormina or Etna excursion.
What is Messina famous for?
Messina is famous for the 1908 earthquake that destroyed the city and killed between 75,000 and 200,000 people one of the worst natural disasters in modern European history. It is also known for the world’s largest astronomical clock, its position on the Strait of Messina (the mythological site of Scylla and Charybdis), its swordfish fishing tradition and the two Caravaggio paintings in its Regional Museum.
What is the best day trip from Messina?
Taormina (45 minutes south) is the most popular and most rewarding day trip from Messina, combining the Greek theatre, Isola Bella and the clifftop town in a full day. Mount Etna (1 hour south) is the most dramatic natural experience. For Godfather film location visitors, Savoca (30 minutes south in the hills) is the most specific destination. Read our guides to Taormina and Mount Etna for full details.
The Gateway Worth Pausing At
Messina asks for patience that most itineraries do not allocate it. The city’s specific quality the combination of catastrophic historical experience and persistent civic ambition, the astronomical clock as a monument to mechanical precision built in a city that had been twice levelled, the Caravaggio hanging in a regional museum rather than a capital, the felucca boats on the Strait using a technique that Homer recognised is not immediately visible. It requires time and a willingness to look past the surface of a city that does not present itself with the confidence of Palermo or the scenic perfection of Taormina. For those who give it that time, Messina is considerably more than a transit point.
For the broader eastern Sicily picture, read our guides to Taormina, Mount Etna, Catania and our complete 10-day Sicily itinerary.
Did this guide help you plan your Messina visit? Save it to Pinterest or share it with someone who thinks Messina is just a ferry terminal.
