It is the view of the Aeolian archipelago to excite us along the route that from Messina, the city of the strait, runs towards the first weekend stop in the northeastern Sicilian lands.
It is the A20 motorway connecting Messina to Palermo to accompany us on the first stretch of road leading us to the village of Castroreale.
Exit at Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, big center overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, we take the provincial road 82 and climb up to 394 meters in Castroreale.
Located between the Peloritani Mountains, the town is clinging to the Torace hill.
Characteristic is its urban fabric with a distinctly medieval impression, characterized by narrow and winding alleys with characteristic stone pavement.
The village has to be visited dragged by curiosity and the desire to discover its hidden corners, enjoying the panoramas that its squares offer to the sea and the mountains.
Not to be missed is the Duomo devoted to the Assunta, erected in the first half of the seventeenth century, adorned by two interesting marble portals and from the inside with a Latin cross that carries eighteenth-century canvases, sixteenth-century marble statues and a darkroom sundial, one of the seven meridian built In the region in the nineteenth century.
The 17th century church of San Filippo Neri, with its annexed Oratory of the Fathers of the Philippines, is now home to the Civic Museum, which offers interesting paintings and sculptures from the fifteenth century to today, the Candelora church, Which houses a beautiful altar in carved wood and decorated with gold engravings of the seventeenth century, and the church of Sant’Agata, with inside a marble group of the Annunciation, an interesting sixteenth-century opera by Antonello Gagini.
Gorgeous stop in one of the village’s restaurants with a good dish of hard wheat macaroni seasoned with eggplant and ricotta salted or with a tasty pork ragout.
You can also indulge in the taste of the traditional “castriciano” sweet, the “badessa biscuit” created by the nuns of the Clarisse Convent, aniseed aroma, which is offered in two versions, the hard one, great if sunk in sweet wine or granite, and that soft, stuffed with jam.
Second part of the weekend is at Brolo. Let Castroreale go down to the sea again. It is again the A20 motorway to give us more views of the Aeolian Islands.
Tindari is one of the treasures that we have along the route, a center characterized by the important sanctuary of Maria Santissima dominating the Tyrrhenian Sea from its 268 meters.
We arrive at Brolo, dominated by the ancient castle dating back to the tenth century, which was the residence of Princess Bianca Lancia, wife of Federico II, and which was a great point of view on the wide stretch of Tyrrhenian coast. The ancient village, which is the frame of the castle, gives a picturesque view.
To see inside the castle the Museum of Coastal Fortifications of Sicilia, to know the evolution of the defensive systems in the various historical periods, and that of Penalty and Torture, disturbing route between the instruments of torture and capital execution.
Among the most important religious architectural emergencies is the eighteenth-century church of Maria SS. Annunziata which houses, in its interior, appreciable frescoes and paintings.
So much fish in local restaurants, where to enjoy, among the various dishes, seafood linguine, a mixed fry or a grill dish. Then relax with a walk on the waterfront, enjoying the last lights of the weekend, before departing to Messina.
