Majestic Messina Is Known As Much For Its Baroque Architecture As For Its Sumptuous Sicilian Cuisine

Were you to swim the strait between the toe of Italy and the horn of Sicily you would come out of the water at Messina, which you could see from far off as it rises upward from the beaches, with cobbled streets wriggling towards the 12^th century Cathedral. And from those hilly heights you can just about make out the Calabrian coast across the strait.

Messina was founded by the Greeks in the 8^th century BC and was a stop-over for Richard the Lionhearted on his Crusade to the East. Director Michelangelo Antonioni shot scenes for his L’Avventurra here, Bocaccio set a day in his Decameron, Friedrich Schiller write The Birds of Messina, and Nietzsche Idylls of Messina. and singer Domenico Modugno had a hit song about Messina’s swordfish.

The city has always been rich in legends of the sea, like that of Colapesce about a strong young fisherman who holds up one of the columns that supports Sicily and stories of mermaids and sea gods abound.

Architecturally Messina is extraordinary. Once the capital of the island, it drew the best architects and artists of the 16^th and 17^th century to create the Sicilian baroque. Set within the Cathedral’s bell tower is the marvelous Astronomical Clock, built in 1933 and the world’s largest, overlooking the splendid piazza, where you can sit and have a Messina specialty, mezza con panna, a coffee granita with a dollop of whipped cream.

There are two easy hop-on-hop-off bus lines (€20 for both) that begin just north of the harbor. The blue line is better, weaving throughout the city’s principal sights, while the red line runs along the coast with little of real interest to see. While aboard you will have to endure 45 minutes of non-stop tarantella music, I’m afraid.

Messina has a seafood-based cuisine, and restaurants pride themselves on the freshness and seasonality of their food. One of my favorites spots is the ten table A Cucchiara (Strada San Giaocomo 19), secluded within the 18^th century Calapaj D’Alcontres palace, right next to the Cathedral. The owner’s name is Peppe, and he changes his menu every three days, even including vegan and gluten-free dishes and offers a weekday business lunch.

The arched windows and walls are made of stone, tables and bare tables with wood, with Edison bulbs above you. A young chef works behind a glass panel in the kitchen. The handwritten daily menu arrives with a basket of delicious bread. The wine list is very rich in the best Sicilian labels. When my wife and I visited, the menu offered a little tart of pumpkin and ricotta in a moat of salsa verde with crisp onions (€14 euros) as a starter. Then we shared a sumptuous plate of freshly made fettuccine with fresh funghi porcini(€19), and an array of rigatoni with red shrimp and cream (€19). The fish of the day was a grilled amberjack (€27) with spiraled moist flesh and vegetable shards.

There is an €80 four-course tasting menu, with wine, available as well à la carte.

Casa & Putia (Via San Camillo 14) was opened by four friends, who collectively feature not only Sicilian dishes but those of the Greeks, Normans and North Africans who at various times occupied the city. They are passionately devoted to the best, most sustainable ingredients in making dishes like seppie (cuttlefish) made with Sicilian wheat busiate pasta, cavolo nero (black cabbage) candied Interdonato lemon zest and sweet confit tomato (€19); Paccheri pasta came with artichokes coated with caciocavallo ragusanocheese (€16), and plump rolls of baccalà cod were stuffed with breadcrumbs, chopped Salina capers, olives, celery and Pachino cherry tomatoes (€18).

Highly unusual was Terra & Mare (€18)—surf & turf Italian-style—composed of Nebrodi black pig chuck, black bee honey, crunchy octopus, broad bean cream, sheep’s ricotta and a dusting of wild fennel.

For dessert, the specialty ice cream here is Una sera da “Amerigo” (€8), a luxurious gelato with dark chocolate flakes and Marsala Superiore Oro by Marco de Bartoli.

Otherwise, just around the corner is Pasticceria Irrera (Piazza Cairoli 12), where you’ll find the best cannoli, tri-color cassata and torta Letitzia, to be enjoyed with a sweet dessert wine like Ambar Florio.

Ristorante Piero (via Ghibellina 19) is very proudly Sicilian and very much tied to the sea for its bounty. It’s a handsome ristorante with pleasant lighting, marine artwork, flowers on every table and walls of wine.

The menu is long and substantial beginning with antipasti like fish tartare (€14), crudi (€22), mussels gratin (€10), and a vegetable and shrimp tempura (€15). There are sixteen pastas, including one with Mediterranean lobster (€60 for two persons); spaghetti “old women” style, with vongole clams (€15), and five risottos including one with shrimp, zucchini and almonds (€15). Main courses number more than 20, from simply prepared scampi to filets of the day’s catch, including the swordfish for which northern Sicily is known (€18). There are a dozen Sicilian desserts, and a good list of grappas.

The outdoor tables under big white umbrellas go fast in warm weather.

Clearly the people of Messina like to eat well and at remarkably modest prices for seafood. You will, too, and you do so in quiet ristorantes and trattorias where you don’t have to listen to tarantellas in the background.