SHORE
EXCURSION: CEFALU, TINDARIS & THE
COAST OF MESSINA: 8
Hours
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Tindaris, Cefalu Private Tours from Messina Include: Our private tour include private transportation to and from Messina with English speaking driver/guide, taxes, parking, tolls.
Not Included: Entrance fees to sites you decide to enter.
 Your
first stop on this beautiful shore excursion
is Tindaris, a Bronze Age settlement from about
1500 BC. The most important Greek city in this
vicinity, Tindaris suffered from a landslide
at the end of the First Century AD and an earthquake
in 365 AD. Most of what the visitor sees today
was constructed during the Roman period.
You will tour the amphitheatre, built in the
4th century BC, with its ruins of simple temples
and the so-called basilica, a fine example of
Greco-Roman architecture. You will also see an
important Christian sanctuary that sits high
above the city, with a black Madonna statue that
draws visitors from near and far.
Then your private tour proceeds to Cefalù,
a charming village with winding, medieval streets
and delightful restaurants overlooking the rocky
coast. It is dominated by a huge rock known as
La Rocca, once the site of a Temple of Diane
and one of the finest Norman-Arab-Byzantine Cathedrals.
In 1131 the ambitious Roger II began the Duomo
of Cefalù, intended as Sicily’s religious seat.
Though it failed to fulfill this function, the
building's magnificence has never been eclipsed.
Its fine mosaics, including a depiction of Christ
Pantocrator in the apse, are often celebrated
as the purest Byzantine works of art on Sicilian
soil.
Also of interest is the Mandralisca museum,
which houses an Antonello da Messina painting,
in addition to an eclectic collection of coins,
ceramics, vases, minerals and shells from the
area.
Time permitting, you will drive a little further
along the coast line to reach the charming village
of Santo Stefano di Camastra and browse the colored
pottery in its many ceramic shops.
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