Patron saint festival In 327 days
Maria Santissima Raccomandata
📅 Every year, on 8 September
On 8 September, the day of the Nativity of Mary, Giardini-Naxos celebrates its patroness: and tradition has it that the date is never moved.
Visitors arriving by sea drop anchor in a wide bay framed by Cape Taormina and Cape Schisò. This coastal stretch holds the archaeological remains of an 8th-century BC Greek colony, sprawling near the Schisò promontory. The town was originally known simply as Giardini, but regional lawmakers appended Naxos in 1978 to formally mark its Hellenic origins.
Home to 9,268 permanent residents, the municipality shifted gear in the 1970s to become a major seaside resort. Regular cruise ship stops now bring steady traffic to the Ionian coast, replacing older maritime routines with beachfront hospitality right below the hills of the Messina province.
The Giardini-Naxos guide
What to eat here 3
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
Where to stay 24
24 places to stay · top rated: Villa Chiara Taormina 9.6 · Hotel Villa Taormina 9.6
Events & festivals 1
Next up: Maria Santissima Raccomandata, Wednesday 8 September
Getting there
Nearest airport: Reggio Calabria, 43 km away
Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideExperiences in Giardini-Naxos
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Giardini-Naxos 1
No events match these filters.
🍝 The flavours of Giardini-Naxos
Arancino fried rice cone stuffed with ragù, pointed like Etna
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 →
Pitone messinese fried half-moon pastry filled with escarole, tuma cheese and anchovies
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.
Near Giardini-Naxos
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Giardini-Naxos, but an easy day trip away.
Marinelli Bell Foundry 📍 Agnone · 10 km One of Italy's oldest family businesses, this pontifical foundry has been casting bells since 1040. chiesa di San Francesco 📍 Agnone · 10 km An emerald-green dome, a Gothic portal and a book museum inside the friary. chiesa di San Marco Evangelista 📍 Agnone · 9.8 km A Venetian winged lion carved over the portal of Agnone's mother church. chiesa di Sant'Emidio Vescovo e Martire 📍 Agnone · 10 km The Gothic portal and rose window of the church Agnone calls its duomo. Santuario italico di Pietrabbondante 📍 Pietrabbondante · 17 km The theatre and temples where the Pentri Samnites gathered their senate, above the Trigno. chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Carovilli · 18 km The marble font carved with the barons' portraits, in Carovilli's parish church.