MESSINA may well be your first sight of Sicily; and - from the ferry - it's a fine one, the glittering town spread up the hillside beyond the sickle-shaped harbour. Sadly, the image is shattered almost as soon as you step into the city, bombed and shaken to a shadow of its former self by a record number of disasters. Plague, cholera and earthquakes all struck throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, culminating in the great earthquake of 1908 that killed 84,000 people, levelled the city and made the shore sink by half a metre overnight. Allied bombing raids in 1943 didn't help, undoing much of the post-earthquake restoration.
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 is a pretty dull spectacle, and most of what interest there is resides in Messina's active port area. Take time at least to walk up Via I Settembre from the train station to Piazza del Duomo. The traffic-cluttered paved square was laid out in the eighteenth century, while the Duomo itself (daily 7.30am-11.45pm & 4.30-7pm, 3.30-6pm in winter) is a faithful reconstruction of the medieval cathedral built by Roger II. The facade retains its grand doorways and some original sculpture: inside, most of what you see - from the marble floor to the painted wooden ceiling - has been retouched and rebuilt. The detached campanile reputedly contains the largest astronomical clock in the world. Be there at noon and you get the full show, a visually impressive panoply of moving gilt figures including a crowing cock, roaring lion and a succession of doves and angels accompanying the Madonna.
Much of what was salvaged from the various disasters now resides in the Museo Regionale (summer Mon, Wed & Fri 9am-1.30pm, Tues, Thurs & Sat 9am-1.30pm & 4-6.30pm, Sun 9am-12.30pm; winter Mon, Wed & Fri 9am-1.30pm, Tues, Thurs & Sat 9am-1.30pm & 3-5.30pm; L8000/?4.13), 3km north of the centre - a 45-minute walk along Via della Libertà, or bus #28 from Piazza Cairoli or Via Garibaldi, or buses #76, #77, #78 and #79 from Via Garibaldi or the train station. A great deal has been painstakingly stuck and plastered back together in this beautifully laid-out museum, including a couple of Caravaggios, commissioned by the city in 1604. There are also damaged works by Antonello da Messina, a few good Flemish pieces and the city's rescued archeological remains as well.
If you're in Messina in mid-summer, you may coincide with the feast of the Assumption, or ferragosto , August 15, when a towering carriage, the Vara - an elaborate column supporting dozens of papier-mâché putti and angels, topped by the figure of Christ stretching out his right arm to launch Mary heavenwards - is hauled through the city centre. Late at night, one of Sicily's best firework displays is held on the seafront near Via della Libertà.
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