Messina

Messina may well be your first glimpse of the island on your Sicily trip, and from the ferry, it’s an impressive one. The town fans out across the hillside behind a dramatic, sickle-shaped harbor, glittering in the sunlight.

But that postcard view doesn’t last long. Step into the city and you’ll find a place shaped more by survival than beauty. Plague, cholera, and a string of disasters, most notably the 1908 earthquake that killed 84,000 people and dropped the shoreline by half a meter, have left their mark. Allied bombing in 1943 flattened much of what had been rebuilt.

Messina isn’t about charm, it’s about resilience.

Today, the remodelled city guards against future natural disasters, with wide streets and low, reinforced concrete buildings marching off in all directions. Not surprisingly, it’s a pretty dull spectacle, and there’s little point in hanging around for longer than you need to.

Indeed, poor old Messina is the place to be only on the feast of the Assumption, or Ferragosto (Aug 15), when a towering carriage, the Vara – an elaborate column supporting dozens of papier-mâché putti and angels, topped by the figure of Christ – is hauled through the city centre, followed by a firework display on the seafront.

Top image: Messina, Sicily, Italy © NAPA/Shutterstock