Messina

Messina (Sicilian: Missina; Greek: Μεσσήνη) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is located near the northeast corner of Sicily, at the Strait of Messina and it is an important access terminal to Calabria region, Villa San Giovanni, Reggio Calabria on the mainland.

• Yes! pleased, on our land, from his azure way,
  The Sun ever smiles with unclouded ray.
  But never, fair isle, shall thy sons repose
  'Mid the sweets which the faithless waves enclose.
  On their bosom they wafted the corsair bold,
  With his dreaded barks to our coast of old.
  For thee was thy dower of beauty vain,
  'Twas the treasure that lured the spoiler's train.
  Oh, ne'er from these smiling vales shall rise
  A sword for our vanquished liberties;
  'Tis not where the laughing Ceres reigns,
  And the jocund lord of the flowery plains:—
  Where the iron lies hid in the mountain cave,
  Spring the men of empire, the free and brave.
  • Friedrich Schiller, The Bride of Messina (1803), chorus (tr. Adam Lodge, 1841)

• Encyclopedic article on Messina on Wikipedia