In 1100 count Roger founded the abbey of the Annunziata here and gave it to the Basilian monks: their abbots held spiritual and temporal power alike, and it was around the abbey that the town grew. The name itself, Greek in origin, comes from that story.
That people passed this way long before is shown by a terracotta jar found in the 1950s in piazza Duomo, full of bronze and silver coins, some bearing the word «Mamertinov». The town stands at 417 metres, at the end of the Dinarini valley, below Monte Cavallo; its olive oil is among the most awarded on the island. There are 629 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Domenica, patron in a cathedral born around a Basilian abbey, Tuesday 6 July
Nearest airport: Reggio Calabria, 30 km away
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📅 Every year, on 6 July
Mandanici celebrates Saint Domenica, virgin and martyr, on 6 July, in the cathedral dedicated to her, with 13th-century origins; the town grew up around the abbey dedicated to the Annunciate Virgin, founded in 1100 by Grand Count Roger I of Sicily.
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 Mandanici, but an easy day trip away.
