On the southern tip of the Italian "boot", where Calabria looks toward Sicily across the Strait of Messina, there is a village that Balkan tourists rarely discover. Scilla - five thousand inhabitants, fishermen's houses that hang over the sea, and a name drawn from Greek mythology. The locals call it "the little Venice", even though the real one is more than a thousand kilometres away. But the resemblance is not in scale - it is in the way water and architecture are woven together.

The village lies on a coast called Costa Viola - "the Violet Coast". The name is not poetic - it is a scientific fact. Sea algae in this region give the water a violet hue under certain conditions, a phenomenon that even Plato described in antiquity. At the foot of Aspromonte, Scilla is not just a postcard - it is also a scientific anomaly.

The history is as old as the Mediterranean. The first settlements are linked to Trojan communities in the 5th century BC. Later the village survives Vandal and Saracen attacks. In the 11th century, the Normans rebuild it, opening it to trade. The Ruffo fortress, built to defend against pirates, still dominates the seaside quarter Chianalea. And the Maria Santissima Immaculata Church from the 5th century is considered the oldest Christian building in Calabria.

The village is divided into three zones. Marina Grande is the bathers' beach, with sand and calm water. San Giorgio is the upper part, with little streets climbing like stairs. And Chianalea di Scilla is what catches the eye of every visitor - the old fishermen's houses look as if they grew directly out of the sea, built atop rocks that were once just the floor of the bay.

The cuisine is simple and powerful: swordfish is the king of the table. It is made in rolls, on parmesan, grilled, or as an Italian take on a burger. Local fishermen still use traditional boats with wooden tops representing the constellation "Ursa Minor" - a heritage that is not an exhibit, but a tool in daily use.

For visitors who want more than the beach, there are Palazzo Scategna (today a hotel), Villa Zagari from 1933 (a national monument), the Ruffo fountain from the 16th century, and the Fontana dei tre Canali from the 17th. In Piazza San Rocco stands a statue of Scilla herself - the mythical creature from Homer's "Odyssey" after which the village is named.

For a Balkan traveller, Scilla is close - as close as the Albanian coast is for Italians. But unlike Tuscany or Puglia, here you are not surrounded by buses and tour groups. You can sit at a café on Marina Grande at seven in the evening and watch Stromboli smoking in the distance - and be the only customer at the table without an Italian accent.