Arthur John Strutt (Chelmsford, 12 June 1818 – Rome, 1888) was an English painter, engraver, traveller,
writer and archaeologist. The son of the landscape painter Jacob George Strutt, he travelled through France
and Switzerland in the company of his father before they both arrived in Italy in 1831 and settled in Rome. He
remained in Italy for the rest of his life, becoming especially interested in “picturesque” aspects, particularly
those of the Roman countryside, focusing his attention on landscapes and the customs of the inhabitants. In
1838 he undertook a long journey on foot through Southern Italy, accompanied by his friend William Jackson.
This journey gave rise to A Pedestrian Tour in Calabria and Sicily, a work presented as a collection of letters addressed
to family members, often written in the evening before going to sleep after exhausting days of walking.
They are true diary-letters, created with the intention of recording the impressions and images gathered along
the way.
Strutt appears as an essentially visual traveller, devoid of scientific, social, or political interests: what attracted
him was the landscape and popular life, observed as combinations of lines and colours.
In this context, Calabria and Sicily represented for him the most desired destinations, almost an artistic mecca,
where his sketchbook seemed destined to be filled.
His ability to engage immediately with people and places makes the book particularly valuable, an intense testimony
to the gaze of a young artist, barely twenty years old, animated by a profound thirst for life, art, and
adventure. In the spring of 1838 Strutt arrived in Scilla descending along the Calabrian coast.
In the passage, the author describes his first encounter with the town, dwelling on the rocky landscape and on
several scenes of everyday life; references to the classical Scylla inevitably emerge as well.
“We soon arrived at Scilla, famous in classical memory.
The rocks, still jutting out and ever-present, continue their battle with the sea and the ‘barking waves’.
Their forked peaks present a formidable appearance.
The principal rock, crowned by a fort (once considered important, now reduced to ruins, having been dismantled
by the French), forms a mighty breakwater protecting the small harbour that shelters fishing boats, speronare,
and other vessels belonging to the village of Scilla or passing through.
The scene was too picturesque not to tempt my pencil while breakfast was being prepared. Our appetites had
been sufficiently sharpened by the ride to surrender fully to the pleasure of this meal, which consisted of macaroni,
slices of fried swordfish served with oil and vinegar, salad, giuncata cheese, oranges and almonds: all
washed down with a flask of that dark Calabrian wine, whose strength and fragrance gradually increase as
one moves farther south.
After the two muleteers and the animals had finished their meal, we resumed our journey, and after a halt at
midday (to combat thirst and heat with wine cooled by ice, or more precisely by frozen snow, with which every
inn in these parts is abundantly supplied), we arrived at San Giovanni, situated at that point of the Boot where
the Strait is closest to Sicily and directly opposite Messina. This is the place where one generally embarks: with
a favourable wind, the Strait is crossed.”
In his notes there emerges a fascination with the small gestures of daily life: breakfast with macaroni, fried
swordfish, oranges and almonds, accompanied by the intense aroma of red wine.
Particularly curious and evocative is the detail of snow being stored in inns to cool the wine, a testimony to an
ancient practice that characterised the commercial relations between the town of Scilla and the Sicilian shore
of the Strait.
This snow, coming from the snow pits of Aspromonte, was not merely a means of combating the heat, but
reflected the importance of Scilla as a centre for the collection, transport and trade of snow destined for Messina
and Sicily.
In other words, the snow was not used only to cool beverages: it was a valuable commodity, closely linked to
local commerce and traditions.
Giuseppe Ribuffo
