Scilla
Fishing Town On The Strait Of Messina Beneath The Rock Identified With Homer'S Scylla, With The Chianalea Quarter Built Directly Into The Water And A Ruffo Castle Above · Scilla, Calabria
Homer put a six-headed monster on this rock and a whirlpool across the water, and the strait between them is the original between a rock and a hard place. The rock is still here with a castle on it, dropping straight into the Tyrrhenian at the point where Calabria comes closest to Sicily, and Etna is visible from it on a clear day. Below on the northern side is Chianalea, a fishing quarter where the houses are built directly into the water with no street between them and the sea, so the lanes end at doorsteps that the waves reach and the boats tie up at the back doors. On the other side of the rock is Marina Grande, a long sand beach that is where the town actually swims. The swordfish boats still work the strait with a spotter high on a mast and a harpooner on a walkway out over the bow, which is a method nowhere else uses and is best watched from the castle. Chianalea takes twenty minutes to walk and the beach is on the far side of the rock; they are two different places.
Piazza San Rocco, Scilla, Calabria, 89058, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: Chianalea, Marina Grande and the town lanes are public and never close. Castello Ruffo keeps municipal hours with a weekly closing day and shorter winter opening, and it closes in high wind. Boat trips into the strait are seasonal and weather-dependent. Restaurants in Chianalea run evening service and a number close from November to March. The railway station is served through the day on the main coastal line. Confirm the castle before counting on it.