Messina Museum: Exclusive city tour including Caravaggio

Who knows the best of Messina, if not a local tour guide? Enjoy the city center, escorted by a professional tour guide from Messina to learn key factors and secrets of a popular Sicilian destination.

Once welcomed by our representatives at the stated meeting point, you will be accommodated on board a comfortable A/C van or minibus. Your experience in Messina starts with a sightseeing tour of the city center: the very first item of the guided tour is the Monument of Virgin Mary of the Letter (Patron Saint of Messina), built exactly at the limit of the peninsula of the port, where there are ruins of a fortress from the 1500s. Continuing the tour, you will admire the marble fountain of God Neptune dating back to 1557, a work of art by Giovan Angelo Montorsoli from Florence, with the two legendary sea monsters Scilla and Cariddi, living in the Strait of Messina. The itinerary follows the coastline passing by the ferry boat port located in the northern quarter of Messina, to reach the Regional Museum Maria Accascina. The museum is a precious casket, full of works of art set in the local history and saved from the immense tragedy of the earthquake of 1908. The collection includes the Polyptych of Saint Gregory painted in 1473 by Antonello da Messina: this is one of the works of art held in Sicily by the artist, native of Messina, while most of his paintings are collected in international museums. Among the sculptures, you can’t miss the elegant statues by Gagini and Montorsoli from the 1500s. Absolute masterpieces are the two paintings by Caravaggio, provided by the northern-Italian artist during his stay in Messina in 1608: The Raising of Lazarus and The Adoration of the Shepherds, from two destroyed churches of Messina, characterized by the technique of chiaroscuro and realism. Finally, you will see paintings of the Virgin Mary of the Letter by local painters from the 1600s and 1700s. After visiting the museum, the guided tour goes on with the visit of the Cathedral of Messina, the largest church in town with marvellous mosaic decorations from the 1300s. The main altar is dedicated to the Patron Saint and it is embellished with polychromic marbles representing flowers according to the trend of the 1600s. Furthermore, the cathedral houses the Tamburini organ, with about 16,000 pipes, one of the largest organs in Europe. At noon exactly, in Cathedral Square, you will attend the daily Bell Tower Show happening just once a day: this is the must-see in Messina when you are on a city tour. A very emotional moment during the tour, accompanied by the comments of your experienced tour guide about singularities, events and episodes of local history. At the end, the tour guide will give you free time to spend in town or provide return transportation.