Un po' di pranzo (a spot of lunch)

About 10km along the coast from Messina to the west, surrounding a lagoon where locals farm mussels and clams, is the town of Ganzirri. On the limb of land which separates the lagoon from the sea is an unassuming-looking family-run restaurant called Trattoria del Lago. Simona's uncle took us there for lunch before we headed back to Ispica.

 

As is usually the case in a trattoria, there was no menu, just a verbal description of what they have today. This way, you know that the food you are getting is the freshest available, more than likely caught only a few hours earlier. The offerings were simple: either pasta or rice with mussels or clams for the primo (first plate) with fried squid, octopus salad, or a fish similar to swordfish (I didn't catch the name) for the secondo.

 

Simona's uncle recommended that we must also order an antipasto (starter) of Polpette di Pescespada con Salsa Semplice (swordfish meatballs in simple tomato sauce), so good that "When God is pissed off with the world, He sends for a plate of these and afterwards everything is ok again"

I had the Spaghetti con Cozze (spaghetti with mussels) in a delicious tomato sauce. Then Calamari Fritti (fried squid) beautifully tender with just enough bite. I also tasted some of Simona's Insalata di Polpo (octopus salad) which was also delicious. The meal was accompanied by fresh and delicious bread with sesame seeds and washed down with a local red wine "for those in the know" which arrived in an unlabeled bottle with a crown cap. It was very slightly frizzante with a mellow, rounded but robust flavour similar to port.

 

This place is well worth a trip to Messina and the very traffic-heavy drive out to Ganzirri. The food was all superb. As the owner said, it's "cooked as simply as possible to get to the essential flavour of the fish".

No Parking

To say that Messina has a parking problem with parking would be an understatement. The sign in this picture means that cars parked on the side of the road will be towed.

 

Journeying to Messina

We are staying in Ispica, in the province of Ragusa, on the south-eastern point of Sicily. Simona's uncle currently lives in Messina town (which is the name of both the town and the province), so we went for a visit.

 

The drive is only a couple of hours, but the views are incredible. Not least because the central reservations of the motorway are brimming with beautiful but toxic Oleander. The road is inland from Ispica to Avola and then follows the coast past Siracusa, Catania and Taormina to Messina.

 

Mount Etna, brooding and perpetually shrouded in a ring of cloud at her summit, hangs over Catania. Etna is an active volcano and there are times when Catania airport, the main airport for the east of Sicily, is closed because Etna is grumpily spewing smoke, ash and lava.

 

After Catania, the landscape becomes noticeably more rugged. Peaks and foothills hide small towns nestled into the protective embrace of the mountain. Sometimes the first sign you'll see of a town will be its cemetery because they're usually outside the walls of the town.

 

Taormina clings to the side of a mountain, overlooking the beautiful, clear waters of a sheltered bay. Little wonder tourists flock to the area!

 

Shortly after Taormina, the indistinct, hazy outline of the mainland appears on the horizon: Calabria - the toe of Italy's boot! And before we know it, traffic is getting heavier because we're entering Messina.

 

The town is not exactly the jewel in Sicily's crown. There is some beauty here, but Messina seems run down and dirty. It is a port and as with any port there is a lot of through traffic.

 

In 1908, there was an earthquake which devastated the town. Temporary housing was quickly erected and after a few years, funds (and permission) were found to begin rebuilding. The work had barely started when the first world war broke out, halting progress. In the 1920s work continued and so much of the architecture here is in the Liberty style (known elsewhere in the world as Art Nouveau).

 

 

Progress ground to a halt again with the Second World War and restarted in the 1950s. Over a hundred years since the quake however, that temporary housing is still in use; the buildings have been modernised a little and renovated here and there, but they're still the same structures and people live there.

 

The beauty of the town is the panoramic walk, high up by the old city walls, looking out to the harbour, the strait and Calabria beyond.

 

 

We descended the hillside through the grounds of the Montalto Church and headed towards Piazza del Duomo (the Cathedral) The rebuilt clocktower was inaugurated in 1933 with works built by the Ungerer company of Strasbourg and at midday every day it gives a quirky display steeped in the tradition and folklore of the area.

 

 

Two statues - Diana and Clarenza, historical heroines of the city - draw attention by tolling the bells. Then a lion (the symbol of Messina) waves a flag, waggles his tail and throws back his head to emit three fearsome roars. Next up is a somewhat arthritic display from a rooster, which struggles to flap its wings before crowing. As Schubert's Ave Maria plays, a model of Montalto Church rises from what I assumed to be the rubble of the 1908 earthquake, Christ raises his arms to bless the crowd and finally there's a depiction of the legend of the letter sent to the residents of Messina from the Virgin Mary. It scores highly on entertainment value plus, it's all visible for free!