Scopello

Scopello was built around an 18th-century baglio (manor house) fortified with a high wall and huge gates, its white houses and smooth-stone streets are straight out of a 1950s Italian movie. The historic tonnara (tuna fishery) crowning the shoreline is a popular film location.

Scopello is a fascinating little village centred around a fortified baglio (farmstead). Once providing shelter for the local landowner’s animals and workers, this wonderfully evocative 18th century construction now plays hosts to a couple of restaurants, a café and a shop, all of which spill out into the cobbled courtyard in the summer months.

Top Attractions

La Tonnara di Scopello

Traditional tuna fishing is explored at this unusual seafront museum, in a vintage tonnara (tuna 'factory'), in operation from the 13th century until its closure in 1984. The complex was greatly developed in the 15th and 16th centuries, and in 1874 the wealthy owners had the elegant, salmon-pink Palazzina Florio built right on the water. The setting alone – overlooking fluorescent blue waters, at the foot of dramatic rock formations capped by a medieval tower – makes it a visit worthwhile.