Stage 5: Messina

In the modern (particularly American) imagination Sicily is a backwards place, rural and underdeveloped, and infested by Mafia. In recent generations the stereotype is not without basis in reality - but in the past, Sicily was the crossroads of Western civilization, and Messina in particular was among the greatest cities of Europe.

The city has been an important port since Ancient Greek times. Messana frequently allied with the city-state of Siracusa in various wars against Carthage, a dynamic that continued into the Roman period. The city then passed into the hands of the Byzantines and then the Saracens, as part of the Arab conquest of the Mediterranean, then the Norman conquest of everywhere. In the medieval period, ships bound for the Holy Land during the Crusades left from the harbor of Messina, and by the Renaissance, it had become one of the intellectual and cultural centers of Europe.

Sketches by architect Filippo Juvarra, born in Messina in 1678

Architects, astronomers, painters, statesmen and poets filled Messina under the rule of the Spanish Crown of Aragon, and the city continued to prosper under the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 

The Unification of Italy in 1861, under Giuseppe Garibaldi's revolution, is commonly portrayed as a triumph of Enlightenment-era national self-determination and the throwing off of foreign yokes. In reality, it was the simple annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Papal states, the Tuscan provinces and Lombardy-Venetia by the Kingdom of Sardinia under the House of Savoy. And in the following decades, the rich North imposed its rule on the South largely by force, at times in a manner reminiscent of English domination of Ireland. And like the Irish poor Sicilians, Calabresi and Neapolitans fled their homeland to seek their fortune in the New World, in numbers large enough to forever change the face of - for example - my town, New York City, where the word "mozzarella" is still pronounced alla napoletana without its final syllable, and once-obscure Sicilian Christmas Eve traditions fill supermarkets with seven kinds of fish. 

Messina remained a major city, despite its troubles, and continues to be an important presence economically and culturally. And one of my favorite poets was born there: Salvatore Quasimodo. 

Born in 1901, Quasimodo became one of the leading figures of the primarily Italian poetic movement known as hermeticism, or ermetismo, which rejected the trends of social-political critique and focused on introspective, highly symbolist and often very short forms. The sound and rhythm of the words was extremely important (a fact any translator must take into account) and allusions were often multilayered and frequently Classical. 

Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della Terra

Trafitto da un raggio di sole

Ed è subito sera. 

Each man stands alone on the heart of the Earth

Pierced by a ray of the sun

And it's suddenly evening...

(1942)

Finally, this blog is a Giro d'Italia blog after all, so we can't move on to the next stage without mentioning another illustrious native of Messina, Vincenzo Nibali. Lo Squalo, the Shark of the Strait, he's the defending champion of last year's Giro and known as a strong all-around competitor - good at long distances, sprints and mountains. This year he has not yet won a stage but remains among the favorites - and there's still a long way to go.