Destinations

Italy bans paradisiacal area on the coast of Sicily

Published

February 29, 2020

"Scala dei Turchi" is the target of a fight between owner and city | lavalledeitempli

“Scala dei Turchi” is the target of a fight between owner and city

The Coast Guard of Porto Empedocle, in southern Italy, closed this Thursday (27) one of the most paradisiacal stretches of the Sicilian coast, the “Scala dei Turchi” (“Staircase of the Turks”, in free translation), a set of rocky and white cliffs located in the city of Realmonte.

The action was requested by Agrigento prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio, as part of an investigation against the owner of a large part of the area, Ferdinando Sciabarrà. The MP investigates an alleged occupation of public property.

“The site is claimed to be the property of the person being investigated, who has de facto possession. The person being investigated, in turn, without ever having carried out any work to protect the site, both from a landscaping and security point of view, made claims of an economic nature regarding the exploitation of the area and wanted to carry out works to surround the site”, says the Agrigento MP.

The investigation was opened last December, after the fall of some rock fragments. “From what I understand, it is going in the direction desired by Realmonte City Hall: confirming that the Scala dei Turchi is public, and not private,” said Mayor Lillo Zicari.

The cliffs attract thousands of tourists every year and became famous due to the novels starring police chief Salvo Montalbano, a character created by Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019).

See beautiful aerial images: