The mother church has no dome, and it is not an oversight: in the seventeenth century Tusa asked to be made a bishop's seat, Nicosia won it instead, and in protest the planned dome was never built. Churches, in any case, the town has had twenty-six.
The town was born of an earthquake: when the tremor of 856 ruined Alesa Arconidea, the Siculo-Greek city on the hill of Santa Maria delle Palate, the people came down and settled on this spur of rock. Down at the sea, above the landing, the Ventimiglia built the castle of San Giorgio in the thirteenth century, and from it the hamlet is called Castel di Tusa: two of its beaches fly the Blue Flag. There are 3,051 residents.
Alesa Arconidea
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
20 places to stay · top rated: L'Uliveto 9.6 · Luna Chiara Residence 9.5
Next up: The Assumption and the Acchiananta dâ Madonna, Friday 13 August
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 93 km away
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📅 Every year, from 13 to 15 August and on the day of the Octave
At Tusa the feast of the Assumption is four processions: on 13 August the Madonna is dead, laid on a bier of rushes; on the 14th and 15th she rises to heaven by stage machinery.
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 Tusa, but an easy day trip away.
