The History

In April 1570 a group of hundred salodians led by Giuseppe Mazzoleni left the ancient port Le Gazzere, located next to the hotel and now silted, heading for Messina, to join the fleet of the Holy League. Famagusta, the main Venetian stronghold on the island of Cyprus, had fallen to the hands of the Turks and throughout the Christian West there was the terror that the Ottoman armies could land in force on the Italian coasts. It was before the coasts of Greece, at Lepanto, that they faced each other in a bloody battle, which saw Venetian and Western fleets prevail on 7 October 1571.