Messina

A quick stop into Messina, completely unplanned, resulted in a nice two hours wandering around the city. Coming out of the train station, we just walked until we found the old part of the city, which contains a really impressive cathedral with a massive tower to one side. The gold figurines move upon the clock striking the hour, in a sort of freaky way - slowly and menacingly would be my description. The inside of the Cathedral is massive, really impressive and unexpected. Well worth a visit, also I welcome opinions on the floor tiles - are they chickens? Cockerels? Dragons? Phoenixes? I'm still puzzling over it.

The most delightful thing we discovered in Messina was ICECREAM IN BREAD. Wow. Wow. Wow. Find a gelateria that sells it and buy some! We spent two hours there and that seemed to be enough to wander around leisurely and see quite a bit of the city. If you've been travelling for ages and need to buy new underwear, Tenzenis on the main square sells amazingly cheap stuff, what a lifesaver!