Catona

Villa San Giovanni (Southern Calabrian: Villa San Giuanni) is a port city and a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria of Calabria, Italy. In 2010 its population was 13,747 with a decrease of 2.5% until 2016 and in 2020 an increase of 3.7% . It is an important terminal of access to Sicily and is also known for being the location of several police films.

Villa San Giovanni railway station (Italian: Stazione di Villa San Giovanni) is the main railway station serving the town and comune of Villa San Giovanni, in the region of Calabria, southern Italy. It opened in 1884, and it forms part of the Battipaglia–Reggio di Calabria railway. The station is currently managed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI). However, the commercial area of the passenger building is managed by Centostazioni. The station's main line train services are operated by or on behalf of Trenitalia. Each of these companies is a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), Italy's state-owned rail company. As the main point of arrival and departure of rail passengers between the mainland and Sicily, the station is a rail facility of national importance. In terms of passenger movements, it is the second busiest station in the Reggio Calabria urban area, and one of the busiest in the region. Additionally, it is a transit point for all of the goods transported by rail between the mainland and Sicily.

Punta Pezzo Lighthouse (Faro di Punta Pezzo) is an active lighthouse located in Punta Pezzo, the closest point of Calabria to Sicily.

Campo Calabro is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 110 kilometres (68 mi) southwest of Catanzaro and about 12 kilometres (7 mi) north of Reggio Calabria. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 4,193 and an area of 7.5 square kilometres (2.9 sq mi).Campo Calabro borders the following municipalities: Fiumara, Reggio Calabria, Villa San Giovanni.

Reggio di Calabria Pentimele railway station (Italian: Stazione di Reggio di Calabria Pentimele) is a railway station of the Italian city of Reggio Calabria, Calabria. Part of the Battipaglia–Reggio di Calabria railway, it serves the quartiere of Pentimele and the indoor sporting arena PalaCalafiore.

Port of Messina (Italian: Porto di Messina) is a port serving Messina, Sicily, Italy. The port has seen a significant growth in traffic in the 21st century, and is now one of the largest and most important in the Mediterranean for cruise ships, growing from 260,000 passengers in 2006 to 405,000 in 2009. The port opens on the western shore of the Strait of Messina, and is made up of a large inlet of the natural harbour, that borders an area of around 820,000 m². The port areas, however, only occupy about 50 hectares. The harbour entrance in the northwest is about 400 meters wide, and the average depth of the basin (about 100 meters from the docks) is 40 meters. This allows for the access and docking of large ships. The docks are equipped with both fixed and mobile cranes, and are linked by rail through Messina Centrale and Messina Marittima railway stations.The Port Authority of Messina (Autorità Portuale di Messina) operates the port. In 2016 the Port Authority was criticised by the European Court of Justice for the procedures followed when letting a waste management services contract for handling waste and cargo residues on ships. The authority had excluded a suitable company from the possibility of being awarded the contract because the company had not paid a fee said to be due to the Supervisory Authority on Public Procurement (AVCP). The need to pay the fee was not mentioned in the contract documents and the legal provision underlying this fee applied expressly to public works contracts and not service contracts. The "broad interpretation" of the law in Italian practice and national administrative case law was held to be a matter which non-Italian companies could not be expected to be aware of and therefore the undisclosed requirement to pay the fee was held to be discriminatory and non-transparent.

The Battle of the Strait of Messina was fought in 276 BC when a Carthaginian fleet attacked the Sicilian fleet of Pyrrhus of Epirus, who was crossing the strait to Italy. Pyrrhus had left Italy for Sicily on the Autumn of 278 BC and scored several major victories against the Carthaginian armies, but Roman successes against Pyrrhus' Italian allies convinced him to return to Italy.While Pyrrhus was transporting his troops to Rhegium his fleet of 110 decked warships and hundreds of transports was attacked by the Carthaginians. The Carthaginian navy sank 70 of the Greek ships and damaged 28. Pyrrhus' surviving ships, amounting to 12 warships plus the transport ships, docked at Locri where he had left his son Alexander when he opened his Sicilian campaign.

The Strait of Messina (Italian: Stretto di Messina; Sicilian: Strittu di Missina) is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily (Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria (Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, within the central Mediterranean. At its narrowest point, between Torre Faro and Villa San Giovanni, it is 3.1 km (1.9 mi) wide. At the city of Messina, it is 5.1 km (3.2 mi) wide. The strait's maximum depth is about 250 m (820 ft). The strait has strong tidal currents that create a unique marine ecosystem. The rock in the town of Scilla, Calabria at the north of the strait and a natural whirlpool in the northern portion of the strait have been linked to the Greek legend of Scylla and Charybdis. In some circumstances, the mirage of Fata Morgana can be observed when looking at Sicily from Calabria. With its bottleneck shape, it is also a compulsory point of transit in the migration of many bird species. In 1957, a 220 kV overhead power line was built across the Strait of Messina. Its pylons are among the highest in the world. This power line has since been replaced by a submarine power cable, but the pylons remain and are protected as historical monuments (see Pylons of Messina).

An earthquake occurred on 28 December 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy with a moment magnitude of 7.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The epicentre was in the Strait of Messina which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland. The cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria were almost completely destroyed and between 75,000 and 82,000 people died, making it the most destructive earthquake ever to strike Europe.

The Strait of Messina Bridge (Italian: Ponte sullo stretto di Messina) is a planned 3.2-kilometer suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, connecting Torre Faro in Sicily with Villa San Giovanni in the Italian Peninsula.The bridge has been controversial due to the impact of earthquakes, strong currents in the strait, concerns of disruption of bird migration routes, and the infiltration of mafia groups Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta in area construction projects.While a bridge across the Strait of Messina had been proposed since ancient times, the first detailed plan was made in the 1990s for a suspension bridge. The project was cancelled in 2006 under Prime Minister Romano Prodi. On 6 March 2009, as part of a massive new public works programme, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government announced that construction of the Messina Bridge would indeed go ahead, pledging €1.3 billion as a contribution to the bridge's total cost, estimated at €6.1 billion. The project was cancelled again on 26 February 2013, by Prime Minister Mario Monti's government due to budget constraints. A decade later, the project was revived again with a decree by Giorgia Meloni's government on 16 March 2023, which received presidential approval on 31 March 2023.If fully approved, the bridge will be the longest suspension bridge in the world, 60% more than the main span of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey, the world's current longest span. The bridge could also potentially be part of the Berlin–Palermo railway axis (Line 1) of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T).

Reggio di Calabria Santa Caterina railway station (Italian: Stazione di Reggio di Calabria Santa Caterina) is a railway station of the Italian city of Reggio Calabria, Calabria. Part of the Battipaglia–Reggio di Calabria railway, it serves the quartiere of Santa Caterina and the port of Reggio.

The Port of Reggio is a seaport in the Mediterranean Sea serving the Italian city of Reggio Calabria. The position of the ancient Ausonian-Italic and Greek port is unknown. At that time, the port was located in the southern part of the Reggio coast. During Roman times, the port, called Columna Rhegina was located in the northern part of the Reggio coast, near the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria. The present-day port, enlarged after 1908 earthquake, just takes up the western part of the Santa Caterina neighbourhood, near the city centre. The port connects Reggio and its surroundings to Messina, Catania, Aeolian Islands, Taormina and Malta.