Day 01
Messina Heritage Walk Around Piazza Duomo
- Discover the history of the city as you walk around the surroundings of Cathedral Square, also known as Piazza Duomo.
- Start with the Cathedral itself, originally built by the Normans in the 11th century, then destroyed and rebuilt more than once due to the different disasters that struck the city.
- Inside the church, see magnificent mosaics and works of art dating back to different periods, as well as one of the largest organs in Italy, with more than 16,000 pipes.
- See the famous Bell Tower of the Cathedral. Just outside, the bell tower houses one of the most complex and largest mechanical and astronomical clocks in the world. Every day at noon, all the statues that tell the civil and religious history of the city move accompanied by sacred music in a show that lasts about ten minutes.
- Then stroll around the square to appreciate some interesting buildings, including the Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, built in 1150, the only completely original church remaining in Messina.
- Also, take a contemplative look at the Monument of Don John of Austria.
