MESSINA AND ITS SURROUNDINGS: 12 VILLAGES TO VISIT
All Sicily is beautiful but what to see in Messina and its surroundings and what itinerary to follow to discover the Sicilian villages? Here is an itinerary to discover the 12 most beautiful villages.
Messina and its surroundings: 12 villages to visit
San Marco d’Alunzio
Montalbano Elicona
This is a place with an atmosphere of past times and it seems that any minute now a medieval knight can appear. With the castle, churches and the amazing Parco dell’Argimusco, a high plateau, with its enigmatic rocks, this a village that is worth visiting.
Santa Lucia del Mela
It’s the ancient Makarru, inhabited by the Sicani, an ancient people of Sicily, then become the Sicels. Surrounded by greenery, from here hikers go in search of the prehistoric fern. You should visit the medieval basilica and lose yourself in dozens of churches and convents.
Savoca
A village built under the remains of the Pentefur castle. All around is a sucession of chapels and crypts of the noble. Among many historic buildings, you can admire Palazzo Trimarchi, which was the location for the scenes set in Corleone of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather”.
San Marco d’Alunzio
The village described by Cicero, is beautiful to visit because from the remains of the castle of Robert Guiscard you can lose yourself in the alleys in search of medieval churches and the Byzantine museum.
Mirto
Here is the Museum of Costume, housing the Miraudo collection and bequests of the great tailor’s shops that provides dresses and accessories to noble Misses of the province.
Castelmola
The village is located few steps from Taormina. It’s the ancient Mylai, the natural fortress with its amazing view and the castle where falconers perform and where, it is said, the ghost of Lady Chatterley wanders around.
Castelmola
Roccavaldina
This village has a noble name and develops around its castle. Strolling around the village you can admire the ancient pharmacy dating back to 1628 with its amazing collection of over 200 majolica vases used for the storage of potions and medicaments.
Frazzanò
Here you can admire the Abbey of San Filippo di Fragalà, where the most ancient paper document in Europe comes from: the diploma written in Greek and Arabic of Queen Adelasia, today housed at the State Archive in Palermo.
Condrò
A small village you must visit to discover the ancient remains of the ancient monastery of the Minim Friars.
Graniti
This is the village characterized by bright colours murals that make it unique, together with houses with stone jambs of the city quarter Roccachiacchiera.
San Piero Patti
This village boasts a long history of opposition to power. Here inhabitants still speak a Gallo-italic dialect and it is said that the caves of Malopasso still hide bandits’ treasures.
San Salvatore di Fitalia
In addition to the huge altar of San Calogero, more than 10 meters high, in San Salvatore di Fitalia you have to follow the itinerary of its diffused museum: from the museum of religious traditions inside an ancient convent, through contemporary works and murals up to the Rocca Pietra Giuda, where you can admire the remains of the ancient Jewish settlement, before the villages was conquered by the Normans. From here you can enjoy the view of the Aeolian Islands.
SAN SALVATORE DI FITALIA