On the horizon of Scylla, the illusions of Fata Morgana.

Mirage or fairy tale? Fairy Morgana

Recites the Treccani: "Fatamorgana (or fairy Morgana). Local name, dating back to medieval times, of a mirage phenomenon that sometimes occurs to those who from the Calabrian coast of the Strait of Messina look toward the nearby Sicilian coast. It consists in the appearance above the sea, or within it, of fantastic and changing constructions of towers and pinnacles, which the imagination of poets has imagined to be the abode of the legendary fairy Morgana."

What is it really? A bit of science

The phenomenon was investigated by a Scylla naturalist himself, Antonio Minasi (1736-1808), concluding that it is to the refraction of the Sun's light in the first layers of the atmosphere that we owe the mirage, just above the sea horizon line, of bodies actually existing, but at various distances behind it. They could have been ships, sailing out of sight, or coastal towers, out of sight, and even islands.

In 1786 Minasi published an essay with the eloquent title, Prima Dissertazione sopra un fenomeno vulgarmente detto Fata Morgana o sia apparzione di varie, successive, bizzarre immagini, che per lungo ha sedotto i populi e dare a pensare ai dotti. The phenomenon of Fata Morgana is typical of the Straits, although not exclusive because it is reported in other parts of the world. What is certain is that, abetted by the myth of Scylla and Charybdis, this is the case on which the imagination has embroidered the most, so much so that the term Fata Morgana has passed evenly into foreign vocabularies.

Fun fact: Scylla and Fairy Morgana... on film!

Fun fact, "Tutta colpa della Fata Morgana" is the title of a film that arrived on screens in 2021: Gabriella is a woman who works in contact with the fishermen of Scylla and who, out of gender revenge , dreams of becoming the owner of a "spadara," or one of those boats employed in the Strait for swordfish fishing. When the project seems to come true, a whole series of obstacles stand in the way of the successful completion of a sentimental comedy that, if nothing else, has the distinction of having Scilla and the Costa Viola as its exceptional sets.