Letojanni – Sicily | Ionian Sunny Destination Near Taormina

Letojanni is a very charming seaside resort in Sicily, a sunny place situated? immediately after the bay of that prestigious destination called Taormina well known worldwide for its immense appeal and fascination.

Located on a splendid coastal stretch leading to the city of Messina with an unforgettable view of the scenic promontory of Capo Mazzarò taking the national road SS114 crossing Spisone and Mazzeo.

Visiting Letojanni you can enjoy one the most scenic and beautiful areas of the Eastern Sicilian Coast where the eternally azure and inviting Ionian Sea appears as divinely? painted dominated by fascinating gentle hills highlighted by a typical vivid verdant, Mediterranean vegetation.

The history of Letojanni is the novel of a small old former fishing village transformed in a very demanded and loved destination,those approximately 290/300 days of sunshine a year combined to several historic places in the immediate surroundings and that unmistakable smell in the air of citrons are details that conquer everyone.

The name Letojanni derives from the composition of two words, the first Leto is from the Latin word Laetum taken during Roman rule meaning happy while the second is probably of Moorish heritage deriving from ahyan meaning source or course of a source.

On the northern side of the municipality you can have beautiful views with a long coastal straight where the nearest mountains overlook the beach and leading to the magnificent promontory that of Capo Sant′Alessio in proximity of Santa Margherita along the road leading to Messina,a wonderful rocky headland with a superb and scenic silhouette.

A further one is the image of Capo Mazzarò, a spectacular headland where behind lies the marvellous Isola Bella of Taormina one of the most amazing pictures of Sicily.

The centre of Letojanni is mainly arranged along the coastline, largely developed at a very short distance from the beach behind the Motorway A18 and the long National Road. ?

Via Nazionale is a street situated only a few metres from Piazza Durante,the main square bordered by two main avenues,the most important and busy is the boulevard Corso Vittorio Emanuele while the other is Via Luigi Rizzo, the first? is an artery which crosses the entire centre while the second runs along the maritime promenade.

Via Messina is another relevant street crossing those two arteries,a strategic cross point and around it you can find a good number of Hotels, apartments, fine restaurants and lively bars.

Piazza Durante is the heart and core of Letojanni, a charming square with a typical Mediterranean aspect, flanked by scenic high palm trees very close to the splendid sandy beach and usual lively meeting point of locals and tourists.

Its name with a monument is in honour of one its most famous citizen : Francesco Durante a prominent figure in Sicily born in 1844 in Letojanni an eminent surgeon who was the first in the history who operated a patient with a brain tumour in 1885 and also Politician during the times of the Savoy Kingdom in Italy.

The bronze statue you can see in in the middle of that square was placed there on 13th May?1923 in occasion of a solemn ceremony to pay homage to one of the great personalities born in Letojanni with a presence of Ministers of the Italian Government. It is a work by the artist Ettore Ximenez, a talented sculptor from Palermo famous for several monuments executed all around the world.

The tragic earthquake of 1908 unfortunately included also Letojanni and the beautiful Baroque Church Chiesa di San Giuseppe dedicated to St. Joseph Patron of the town was largely destroyed and due to that natural disaster it was totally re-built.

That Religious building was originally erected between the 17th and 18th century disappeared in the early 20th century and inaugurated 19th March 1931 in occasion of the day of the celebration of the Patron Saint.

Worth a mention that the Church lies in the concrete place where originally born the former Roman Civitas of Letum Ianum and partially on the rests of the former palace of the Marquis Reitano who established there his residence.

The interior developed on three nave has in correspondence of a spacious apse beautiful contemporary mosaics dated the 80's and 90's by a Florentine group called Eredi depicting sacred images as the Virgin Mary and bible scenes.?

Relevant is a painted canvas of the 19th century, representing the agony of St. Joseph by Salvatore Frangiamore, a painter from Mussomeli, a donation to the Parish Church by the Doctor Durante.

In Piazza Cagli, a very pleasant flowered rotunda highlighted by the presence of beautiful Mediterranean plants you can see the Diogene, a sculpture by Corrado Cagli, and the square bears the name of that sculptor since 1980.

The Palazzo della Cultura, the Palace of the Culture hosts the Museo dell′Arte e Cultura Siciliana di Letojanni, the Museum of Sicilian culture and Art located in the square Piazza Matteotti and of course worth a visit entering in a building which originally hosted the clinic of the Doctor Durante.

That place offers the opportunity to know many aspects about fine crafts of embroidery which since many centuries ago is an extraordinary local highlight and in that museum.

You can admire authentic masterpieces with embroidered tablecloths, dresses, wedding dresses all works of great precision, talent, patience and dynamic creativity with laborious processes of preparation.

The ground floor hosts the Biblioteca Comunale Bianca Garuffi, the Municipal Library bearing the name of a native writer well known for one great literary work dated 1959 in a fantastic collaboration with a great master as Cesare Pavese, a novel titled Fuoco Grande, Great Fire.

Palazzo Durante is another highlight situated partially on the square and on the maritime promenade. It is a refined imposing palace elevated in 1902 on an irregular polygonal base with a surface of 400,0 square metres and it was the former residence of the Doctor Durante.?

The heirs sold it to an the Order of nuns of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ who inaugurated in 1958 an Institution called La Casa del Fanciullo, the home of the child.

Letojanni was discovered by many famous characters in the 50's for the proximity of Taormina but also by the activity of a German-American nutritionist called Gayelord Hauser who moved from Germany to Illinois. The doctor spent several holidays in Italy and in love with the sunny Sicily he decided to buy a villa in Letojanni.

The patients of the Doctor Hauser were many stars of the cinema, entertainments and nobility and that notorious nutritionist invited in his mansion famed figures such as Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly and including others related to Royalties and high aristocracy as the Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia and the Baron Philippe of Rotschild among others. It was since then that former humble fishing village started its brilliant escalation reaching a notorious? popularity.

Letojanni is a splendid destination,the Oriental coast of Sicily is all to enjoy, it always remains inside to all people who spent holidays and stays on that ravishing coast where the sun is always shining in a blue sky and the sea has a unique and inimitable, turquoise colour.

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Link : https://www.comune.letojanni.me.it/

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