Scilla | ||
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Comune | ||
Comune di Scilla | ||
The Castle of Scilla.
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Location of Scilla in Italy | ||
Coordinates: 38°15′N 15°43′E / 38.250°N 15.717°E | ||
Country | Italy | |
Region | Calabria | |
Province / Metropolitan city | Reggio Calabria (RC) | |
Frazioni | Favazzina, Melia, Solano Superiore | |
Government | ||
• Mayor | Gaetano Ciccone (since May 14, 2001) | |
Area | ||
• Total | 43.68 km2 (16.86 sq mi) | |
Elevation | 91 m (299 ft) | |
Population (September 2009) | ||
• Total | 5,162 | |
• Density | 120/km2 (310/sq mi) | |
Demonym(s) | Scillesi | |
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
Postal code | 89058 | |
Dialing code | 0965 | |
Patron saint | St. Roch | |
Saint day | August 16 | |
Website | Official website |
Scilla (Greek: Skylla) is a town and comune in Calabria, Italy, administratively part of the Province of Reggio Calabria. It is the traditional site of the sea monster Scylla of Greek mythology.
The town, 22 kilometres (14 mi) from the city of Reggio, lies in front of the strait of Messina, and it is composed of two parts: the downtown, where the town offices and the residence of the patronal saint are situated, and Marina di Scilla, the beach-front, populated by tourists and thus heavily characterized by hotels and restaurants. Since its beach is the first place north of Reggio Calabria where the waters are not cooled down by the strait draughts.
The Ruffo Castle, a fortress built by the Dukes of Calabria overlooks the beach. On a seaward-facing terrace is Scilla Lighthouse, an important aid to ships entering the Strait of Messina from the north.
The village suffered greatly from the 1783 Calabria earthquakes.
The climate is warm subtropical with mild winter and hot summers. The average temperature of february is +13,3 °C, while that of august is +26,8 °C. The extrremes is +47,8 °C on 21 july 1928 and +0,3 °C on 31 december 2014. Temperatures can exceed 20 °C even in winter, especially when the winds blow from the south quadrant (Sirocco, Ostro, Libeccio) and in some cases can reach to large heat wawes, especially the south wind and the south wind that determining a foenh phenomenon, can bring the temperature above +40 °C in late spring, summer and fal. In some cases they can also come wawes of cold air from the Russian steppes they do lower the temperature until toward zero as the +0,3 °C on December 31, 2014, +0,6 °C on January 7, 2017 and +1,1 °C on February 9, 2015. Even the snow can make an appearance although extremely rare, it appaered: in February 1915 (2 cm), 1942 (0 cm), March 1949 (2 cm), February 1956 (0 cm), January 1963 (0 cm), January 1999 (4 cm), February 2006 (0 cm), February 2013 (0 cm), December 2014 (7–8 cm), February 2015 (3 cm), January 2017 (5 cm). The graupel is much more frequent and is appeared numerous times as in January 1979 when he made an accumulation of 10 cm and January 1981 with 8 cm accumulatio.