Calabria - Scilla
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Scilla, one of the most fascinating and best-known small towns of the Costa Viola in the Province of Reggio, stands on a promontory along the narrowest part of the Sicilian channel.
Bound to the legend of the sea monster immortalised by Homer in the Odyssey, Scilla has very ancient origins that some indeed suggest go back to 3000 BC. Colonised by the Calchidians in the eighth century BC, it passed under the dominion of the Reggino tyrant Annasilao in the fifth century, who fortified it.
Later occupied by the Romans, it was then the theatre of an important battle between the Romans and the famous rebel slave Spartacus.
Thanks to its strategic position commanding the Straits of Messina, Scilla always played an important role, from the Normans, with Robert the Guiscard, through the successive Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese periods.
The village, which saw the Garibaldi disembarkment in 1860, was almost completely destroyed by the 1908 earthquake. Rebuilt with its characteristic terraced structure that indeed, in the Chianalea quarter, descends to be directly lapped by the sea.
In the town is the lovely Ruffo castle, the seventeenth-century Church dello Spirito Santo, and interesting monumental fountains.
Scilla, with its crystal clear sea, extraordinary seabed and suggestive scenery, is nowadays a well-known bathing resort, equipped with a small tourist harbour. Its economy is essentially based on agriculture and fishing, above all the catching of swordfish. Its cuisine is well-known, especially for its fish.
