Messina sits at the northeastern tip of Sicily, on the strait that separates the island from the Italian mainland by barely three kilometres at its narrowest. It is Sicily's third largest city, about 220,000 people, and it is where almost everyone arriving by land or by cruise ship sets foot on the island.
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MESSINA IS A TRANSIT CITY AND MOST GUIDES TREAT IT AS SOMEWHERE TO LEAVE. That is worth saying first because it is broadly fair: the ferries land here, the trains and buses radiate from here, and Taormina is forty-five minutes down the coast. What Messina has is not a preserved old town, and if you are expecting Ortigia or Palermo you will be disappointed within an hour.
WHAT IT HAS INSTEAD IS A SPECIFIC AND UNUSUAL HISTORY. On 28 December 1908 an earthquake and the tsunami that followed destroyed the city and killed roughly half its population, somewhere in the region of 75,000 people in Messina alone. It remains the deadliest earthquake in European recorded history. The city was rebuilt deliberately LOW, on wide streets and anti-seismic principles, which is why Messina looks nothing like any other Sicilian city: there is almost no medieval or baroque fabric because almost none survived. Understanding that is the difference between finding the city disappointing and finding it interesting.
AND IT HAS ONE GENUINELY WORLD-CLASS THING. The campanile of the Duomo holds what is generally called the most elaborate astronomical and mechanical clock in the world, built in Strasbourg in 1933, and AT NOON EXACTLY it performs a sequence of moving bronze figures lasting about twelve minutes, with a roaring lion and a crowing cockerel. People gather in the square for it. It is free, it happens once a day, and planning your day around noon is the single most useful piece of advice about Messina.
The Clock, the Duomo and the Strait
One famous noon, two churches worth the walk, and the crossing itself.
THE DUOMO AND ITS CLOCK are the reason to be in the city centre. Arrive in Piazza Duomo by about 11.45 to get a position with a clear view of the tower. The cathedral itself is a 1920s reconstruction of the Norman original with a surviving medieval portal, and the interior is vast and plain in a way that tells you what happened here. The treasury holds the Manta d'Oro, a gold and jewelled cover for the city's icon.
THE CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA DEGLI ALEMANNI, a rare Gothic survival, and the SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA DEI CATALANI, a twelfth-century Norman-Arab church sitting several metres below modern street level because the city has risen around it, are the two buildings that show what the pre-1908 city looked like. The second is the more striking: you look down into it from the pavement.
THE MUSEO REGIONALE holds two Caravaggios, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Raising of Lazarus, both painted in Messina in 1609. For a transit city that is a remarkable thing to have, and the museum is quiet enough that you will likely have them to yourself.
THE STRAIT ITSELF is the other attraction and it is free. The Passeggiata a Mare and the viewpoint at the Madonnina del Porto, the gilded statue on a column at the harbour mouth blessing arriving ships, look across to Calabria. On a clear day you see the mainland mountains plainly. The strait has powerful tidal currents that produce visible whirlpools, which is the origin of Scylla and Charybdis, and the swordfish boats with their enormous forward walkways still work it.
Above the city, the Sanctuary of Cristo Re and the Forte Gonzaga give the view down over the harbour and the strait, and the Monti Peloritani rise immediately behind.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Taormina, the Aeolians and the Mainland
Forty-five minutes to Taormina, a ferry to Calabria, and the islands offshore.
TAORMINA is 45 minutes south by train or car and is the reason many people are in this corner of Sicily at all, with its Greek theatre and Etna behind it. Our Taormina packing list covers it. ETNA itself is about an hour and a half.
THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS are reached by hydrofoil from Milazzo, about an hour west, and Lipari and Vulcano are comfortable day trips in season. CEFALU is two hours west along the north coast and is covered in our Cefalu packing list.
THE MAINLAND is twenty minutes away: ferries cross to Villa San Giovanni constantly for vehicles and to Reggio Calabria for passengers, and the crossing is pleasant and cheap. Reggio's museum holds the Riace Bronzes, which are worth the trip on their own.
Getting around: Messina has two stations, Centrale next to the port and Marittima for the train ferry, and the trains south to Taormina and Catania and west to Palermo both start here. The city centre is flat and walkable along the Corso Cavour and Via Garibaldi. A tram runs the waterfront. A car is unnecessary in the city and useful for the Peloritani and the north coast.
When to Go
April to June and September to October. July and August are very hot.
A hot Mediterranean climate at the humid end, because the strait keeps the air moist. Summer from June to September runs 30 to 33C with high humidity and little relief at night; winter from December to February is mild at 15 to 16C and is the wet season; spring and autumn are warm and settled.
APRIL TO JUNE IS THE PICK: warm, dry, long days and the countryside green before the summer burns it. SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER are the other window, with the sea at its warmest and the heat easing.
JULY AND AUGUST ARE GENUINELY HARD. The humidity makes 32C feel considerably worse, the city has limited shade and the streets around the port radiate heat. Sicilians do what you should do: nothing between one and five. August also brings the FERRAGOSTO shutdown, when many businesses close for a fortnight, and the Vara procession on 15 August, when an enormous votive carriage is hauled through the streets, is the city's biggest day.
WINTER IS MILD AND WET, and it is the only Italian region where a January day can be genuinely pleasant. The rain arrives in short heavy bursts rather than drizzle.
Is Messina Safe for Women Travelers
Ordinarily safe. Heat, traffic and the usual port-city caution.
US State Department travel advisory: the Italy advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
THE HEAT IS THE FIRST PRACTICAL RISK and it is humid heat, which is harder work than the dry heat of the Sicilian interior. The port area and the long straight streets have little shade, and the standard visitor mistake is walking the full length of the Corso at two in the afternoon in August. Follow local practice: early mornings, long lunches, evenings out.
THE TRAFFIC IS THE SECOND AND IS WORSE THAN AVERAGE. Sicilian driving is assertive, scooters use gaps that do not exist, and pedestrian crossings are treated as advisory. Cross decisively and predictably rather than hesitantly, which is counterintuitive and is what locals do.
ON CRIME, Messina is an ordinary Italian port city with ordinary port-city issues: pickpocketing and bag-snatching around the station, the port and on crowded buses, concentrated where cruise passengers gather. Keep a bag closed and in front of you, do not leave anything on a cafe chair, and avoid the area immediately around the station late at night, which is quiet rather than threatening but is not somewhere to linger. Violent crime against visitors is rare.
ON EARTHQUAKES, honestly: this is a seismically active zone, which is why the city is built the way it is, and the 1908 event remains Europe's deadliest. Modern construction here is specifically engineered for it and the practical advice for a visitor is the ordinary advice anywhere seismic, which is to know that the drill is to get under something solid rather than to run outside. It is not a reason to plan differently.
Italy is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as an Italian resident. That means the same ticket, the co-payment Italians make, rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. Italian public hospitals are good and the emergency department, the pronto soccorso, treats anyone who arrives. Pharmacies, farmacie, are marked with a green cross, are staffed by pharmacists who can advise and dispense for minor problems, and post a rota for nights and Sundays on the door. Tap water is drinkable across the country, including from the public fountains that are common in Italian towns.
Socially, Messina is a working university city rather than a tourist town, which makes it in some ways easier: a woman eating alone is unremarkable, students are everywhere, and the evening passeggiata along the Corso is a genuine local institution. Less English is spoken than in Taormina, and attention in the street is more direct than in northern Italy without being threatening.
The Messina Packing List
Light covering clothes for humid heat
Loose linen and cotton, long rather than short, which is what works in humidity and also covers you for churches. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is better than cotton here for the reason cotton fails in humidity: it soaks and stays soaked, while wool keeps moving moisture and does not hold smell across consecutive hot days.
Sun protection in a city with little shade
A wide brim sun hat and high factor sunscreen. The waterfront, Piazza Duomo at noon waiting for the clock, and the long straight streets are all fully exposed.
Water, and more than you think
An insulated water bottle. Sicily in summer dehydrates people quickly and the city has public fountains, so the bottle is a refill container rather than a day's supply.
Shoes for flat streets and steep hills
The centre is flat and walkable, so comfortable flat shoes are the main need. If you intend the Peloritani or the forts above the city, waterproof hiking boots and merino wool socks.
Something that covers shoulders and knees
The Duomo and the smaller churches enforce it, and in this heat a light long-sleeved layer you can put on at the door is more practical than a scarf.
A rain layer for winter and spring
A packable rain jacket for women. Sicilian rain arrives in short heavy bursts between October and March.
The small things
A bag that closes properly, for the station and the port. Swimwear, for the beaches north of the city along the Capo Peloro coast. AND THE ONE PIECE OF PLANNING THAT MATTERS: be in Piazza Duomo before noon, because the clock performs once a day and there is no second showing.
Essential Resources for Women in Messina
Emergency numbers: 112 for all emergencies, the single European number for police, ambulance and fire. 113 for police directly. 1530 for the coastguard, which matters in a strait with this much traffic. Coverage is good throughout the city.
Main hospital or clinic: the Policlinico Universitario G. Martino is the main teaching hospital with a 24 hour emergency department, and the Ospedale Papardo covers the north of the city. Both are reachable by bus or taxi from the centre. Dial 112.
Official health authority: the Ministero della Salute, the Italian health ministry. Carry a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU card. Messina has a university teaching hospital, so serious care is close at hand, which is not true of much of the rest of this batch
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Rome.
Official tourism authority: ENIT, the Italian national tourist board. And with the Messina city tourist office near the port, which confirms the Duomo clock timing, the museum opening hours and the current hydrofoil schedules to the Aeolian Islands from Milazzo
The astronomical clock performs at noon, once a day. Be in Piazza Duomo by 11.45 for a clear view of the tower. There is no second showing.
Messina is not a preserved old town. The 1908 earthquake and tsunami killed roughly half the population and the city was rebuilt low and anti-seismic, which is why it looks unlike any other Sicilian city.
It is a transit hub, and that is useful. Taormina is 45 minutes, Milazzo and the Aeolian hydrofoils an hour, Reggio Calabria twenty minutes across the strait.
Summer humidity is the real difficulty, not the temperature. Follow local hours and stop between one and five.
Solo women safety assessment: Messina is a working university and port city rather than a tourist town, which in some ways makes it easier for a woman alone: students are everywhere, eating alone is unremarkable, and the evening passeggiata along the Corso is a genuine local institution rather than a performance for visitors. Less English is spoken than in Taormina and street attention is more direct than in northern Italy without being threatening. On crime it has ordinary port-city issues concentrated in predictable places: pickpocketing and bag-snatching around the station, the port and on crowded buses, worst where cruise passengers gather, so a bag that closes and stays in front of you handles most of it, nothing should be left on a cafe chair, and the immediate area around the station is quiet rather than menacing but is not somewhere to linger late. Violent crime against visitors is rare. THE HEAT IS THE FIRST REAL HAZARD and it is HUMID heat, considerably harder work than the dry heat of the Sicilian interior, with little shade along the port or the long straight streets, so the local pattern of early mornings and a stop between one and five is the answer rather than a cultural quirk. THE TRAFFIC IS SECOND and is more assertive than most visitors expect, with scooters using gaps that do not exist and crossings treated as advisory, so crossing decisively and predictably is safer than hesitating.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Italy travel guide for women. For the town most visitors are heading to, see the Taormina packing list, and for the north coast the Cefalu packing list. For why wool rather than cotton in humid heat, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
