After a relaxing breakfast at our hotel in Messina, we headed for the Sanctuary of Tindari famous for the Black Madonna. The carving of the Madonna and the baby Jesus dates from 800AD. Legend has it that it was on a Turkish ship which ran into bad weather and dumped cargo to lighten their load. One of the things thrown overboard was the statue. It eventually made its way to shore where it was found by Sicilian peasants, and it has been worshiped ever since. The Basilica is new, only being finished in 1953 but it is beautiful. Mass was just about to start as we arrived, so we didn’t stay long as we didn’t want to disturb the service.
After leaving the Basilica, we headed to Cefalu for lunch. We found a restaurant right on the water where we had delicious pasta. It was a leisurely lunch (as are most meals in Italy) and we very much enjoyed the rest.
After lunch we headed to Termini where we are spending the night. Peter’s grandfather was born here and tomorrow morning we’re going to try and find out how to get his birth certificate. We thought tourist information was in Piazza Duomo but when we asked someone he laughed, gestured around the Piazza and said, “This is all there is.” So, there is no tourist information to get help with finding City Hall (or the Italian equivalent) and the hotel clerk speaks no English. Maybe we’ll have better luck in the morning with the clerk who checks us out, otherwise we’ll just have to figure it out. We’re getting pretty good at it. Thanks for following and we’ll chat again tomorrow.
