Capo d’Orlando (Capu d’Urlannu in Sicilian) is a town of 13,327 inhabitants in the Messina Metropolitan Area. Mainly a tourist and commercial town, it was born as a fishing village. It has a beautiful beach, and places of artistic (picture gallery, Villa Piccolo museum, Bastione Castle) and archaeological (Bagnoli Baths) interest. The Capo d’Orlando beach stretches out under the lighthouse, at the foot of the hill under which the town rises. It is a nice triangle of golden sand that stretches out across crystal clear waters. Particularly evocative, the view offered from the beach is toward Salina.
Villa Piccolo is the historic home of the Piccolo di Calanovella family. The house is today a museum, buried in a magnificent natural scenery, where Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, first cousin of the Piccolos, wrote a major part of his novel The Leopard. The Bastione Castle dates back to the 14th century and was built to defend the sugar cane plantation. The Bagnoli Baths were discovered in 1987 and belong to an ancient Roman villa dating back to the 3rd or 4th century AD.
