In 1639 the Spanish crown, short of money, put Taormina's hamlets up for sale: Gaggi, Mongiuffi and Melia were bought for twenty-four thousand florins by a rich man from Messina, Giuseppe Barrile, who with that purchase also took the title of marquis.
Until 1939 the town was called Kaggi, and the name almost certainly comes from the Arabic: a rivulet, a water channel — which makes sense, here in the Alcantara valley. The arms show an Arab fortress with a crowned lion above it. The town sits just behind Taormina, eight kilometres of road, and from there the sea is a few minutes away. There are 3,138 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Sebastian, patron invoked for the plague that struck Taormina in 1486, Wednesday 20 January
Nearest airport: Reggio Calabria, 44 km away
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📅 Every year, on 20 January
Gaggi celebrates Saint Sebastian on 20 January, in the church erected in 1576; devotion to the martyr saint likely arose under the influence of Taormina, where in 1486 the population invoked his protection to be freed from a severe plague epidemic.
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo inside a golden cone-shaped crust: in Catania it is masculine and pointed, and the quarrel with Palermo over the name is serious.
Read more →A thin sheet of dough folded into a half-moon and fried, with escarole, tuma cheese, anchovies and black pepper inside: Messina’s street food, to eat hot straight from the rosticceria.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Gaggi, but an easy day trip away.
