Between Messina and Taormina

In 440 B.C. the Sikel prince Duketios founded the town of Kaleakte (beautiful coast) here. In the 12th century the Normans erected a fortress on the highest point, of which the palace and the chapel of Roger II, inside a perimeter wall, have been partially preserved (private property).

The Museo Etnoantropologico in Caronía is chiefly concerned with the charcoal-burner's craft, which is a local tradition here.Below the town, in the valley of the Fiume di Caronía, the Romans erected a bridge in the second/third century. Several of its arches are still extant.

Marina di Caronía lies 5km/3mi to the north and has a beach suitable for bathing. There are other beaches at Canneto (to the west) and Torre di Lauro (to the east).

1.5km/1mi beyond the village of Itála a Norman church, San Pietro e Paolo, was built in 1093 on the orders of Roger I after a victory over the Saracens, and together with the hitherto Saracen areas of Alí, Itála and Elucepite was assigned to the Basilian order. The exterior of the building is decorated on the sides with intertwining arch friezes. The interior is a three-aisled columned basilica with pointed archways and a vaulted chancel. The dome was reconstructed during restoration work in 1930.

Level with the town, on the left north bank of the Agró, in the middle of lonely countryside, stands the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo. It formed part of a Greek Orthodox monastery and was probably built in 1116 under Roger II and restored in 1172 under William II. It is a closed block structure with polychrome exterior walls (red brick, golden-brown limestone and black lava). There are battlements along the top of the rectangular building.InteriorDespite its extended ground plan the undecorated interior is not a basilica in the sense that the word is used in the "Latin" world. Instead it follows the Byzantine East Christian tradition of a narthex between two staircase towers (only half preserved), a central area with the ground plan of a Greek cross and a chancel in three parts. There is a large dome over the central area, a smaller one over the chancel. As a whole the church is considered the most important of several Greek churches along the east coast in the province of Messina (others at Itàla and Mili).

The Chiesa della Triade was erected in 1117. The monks chose the Greek language, not Latin, for the expression of the Trinity, and in addition its Old Testament representation which was widely used in the Eastern Christian Church: the three angels of Abraham. This is also the theme of the altarpiece by Antonio Giuffrè (about 1500), as well as appearing on one side of the wood-carved processional banner (gonfalone) of the "Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity", which on the other side depicts Mary with the Infant Jesus.The facade of the church dates from the end of the 16th century.

In the tiny church there is a sculpture by the Florentine Martino Montanini, dating from 1559, which depicts Saint Catherine of Alexandria.