Etappe 9 - zondag 15 mei Vertrekpunt: Messina - Etna Afstand: 159 km

MESSINA
Messina is the portal to get into Sicily for those who arrive from the “continent” and it has been the first Sicilian town conquered by Romans in 263 b.C. Now Messina is a modern town, completely renewed after the devastating earthquake of 1908 and the bombings of WWII. Just a few tokens remain of its glorious past, such as the Duomo constructed by Normans and then rebuilt after 1943. Its bell tower hosts a rarity: one of the larges mechanical clocks in the world, constructed in Strasbourg in 1933. On the western side, behind niches, there are automatons, which start moving at noon and midnight and some Biblical scenes and life stages. On the side of the parvis astronomical mechanisms represent the calendar, the solar system and the lunar phases. On the square grandstands the Orione Fountain, constructed in the mid sixteenth-century for celebrating the construction of the first aqueduct in Messina. The fountain is dedicated to the legendary founder of the town and is embellished by certain mythological scenes and its balustrade by the personification of the Nile, Tiber, Ebro and Camaro (the torrent used for the aqueduct) on the edge of the main basin. Unmissable is the Acquario Comunale (municipal aquarium) with the annexes Museum of marine fauna and the Church of the SS. Annunziata dei Catalani, in Arabic style with blind arch decorations on small columns.

FROM MADDALONI TO MONTEVERGINE DI MERCOGLIANO

Taormina
Sicilian pearl, elegant destination by excellence, it benefits from sensational views high up above the sea such as the one from the stands of the Teatro Greco, the most famous monument in town, loved by Goethe and Oscar Wilde. Built in the third century b.C. with a horseshoe shape, it has been transformed by Romans in an amphitheatre for gladiators’ fights, while nowadays it hosts important cultural, cinema and theatre events. In front of the bay, the Isola Bella, a natural reserve ideal for snorkeling.

Giardini Naxos
The large archeological area on the promontory of Capo Schisò hosts the remains of the most ancient Greek column in Sicily. The town, founded in 734 b.C., has been occupied and destroyed by the despot Dioniso di Siracusa three centuries later. Visitors can see long sections of the boundary walls, the defensive works constructed in lava stone, the sacred area contained in a wall enclosure with the remains of a temple, probably dedicated to Aphrodite, and two kilns.

Acireale
Rich of elegant Baroque palaces in the middle of the citrus orchards, the town is known for the sulphurous waters of its spas but also for the ice creams. Precisely, it seems that the spumoni (or schiumone) is born here: a semifreddo (Italian soft ice-cream) contained in an ice-cream shell. And the town is dotted all over by ice-cream shops. The main square hosts the Duomo in which visitors can admire beautiful frescoes dating back to the eighteenth/twentieth century and the Santa Venera Chapel. The same square hosts the Palazzo Comunale (municipal building) in flowered Baroque style from Catania with balconies supported by engraved brackets. Villa Belvedere is worth a stop, public garden with a magnificent view on the Ionic Sea and on the Etna.