37.288° N, 13.478° E
Complete guide
Scala dei Turchi: beach guide
What the beach is like
The Scala dei Turchi is a rock face rising sheer from the sea along the coast of Realmonte, in the free municipal consortium of Agrigento. It faces the Strait of Sicily (Canale di Sicilia). The cliff lies along the stretch of sea between Realmonte and Porto Empedocle. It rises between two beaches of fine sand. The beach is sandy.
The Scala is made of Trubi, a marl of a pure white colour. It is a soft, calcareous and clayey rock. The marl formed from the shells of planktonic foraminifera and belongs to the Trubi Formation, of Lower Pliocene age. The horizontal bands visible on the steps are linked to Milankovitch cycles. Sea and wind have sculpted the marl cliff into white ledges, which the Italia.it portal describes as a kind of natural solarium much sought after in summer.
The name comes from its wavy, irregular shape, with soft, rounded lines that recall the steps of a staircase. The reference to the Turks recalls pirate raids: in the sixteenth century Barbary Turkish pirates found shelter in this area, less exposed to the winds. The place also owes its fame to Andrea Camilleri, who spent his summers there as a boy. The Scala dei Turchi has been used as a set for Malèna, In guerra per amore, Il commissario Montalbano and Il giovane Montalbano.
Getting there
As the crow flies, Realmonte is 2.7 km north-west of the beach and Porto Empedocle 4.4 km to the east. It can be reached by following the coast road from Porto Empedocle or by coming down from Realmonte off the Strada Statale 115. The way down to the beach is a staircase cut into the cliff. The cliff itself is reached instead by walking along the shore and climbing a kind of large natural staircase of limestone. From the top, the view takes in the Agrigento coast as far as Capo Rossello.
In place of an eyesore building demolished on the cliff in 2015, FAI built a viewpoint overlooking the cliff, opened in 2016. Before setting out, it is worth checking official channels to see whether access is open and under what rules.
When to go
The beach faces south. With the scirocco, the ostro and the libeccio, the wind blows in from the sea and the beach is exposed to waves. With the tramontana, the grecale and the maestrale, the wind blows from land and the beach is sheltered, with calmer water close to shore. The levante and the ponente strike it from the side. This is an indication based on the orientation of the coast, not a forecast.
The area has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, Csa in the Köppen classification, with an average annual temperature of 17.1 °C. The sea is warmest, at around 24-28 °C, between early and mid August. The English Wikipedia article names May, June and September as the best months to visit, without the heat and crowds of July and August.
Seabed and sea
In the 2025 season the European Environment Agency rated the bathing water quality as excellent. The beaches on either side of the cliff receive quartz and shell sand carried in by the currents. A low-gradient coastal shelf flanks the promontory. Because the marl is soft, the rock face is subject to constant marine erosion and the waves shape its base. When the sea is rough, it is best to stay on the shore.
Rules and protected areas
In April 2026 the Department of the Environment of the Sicilian Region published a public consultation notice on the conservation objectives and measures for the Natura 2000 site of the Scala dei Turchi, classified as a special area of conservation under code ITA040015. In August 2007 the municipality of Realmonte applied to have the Scala dei Turchi, together with the Roman villa of Realmonte, added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2024 the Scala dei Turchi was included among the 100 most important geosites in the world as part of a UNESCO competition.
From 2017 the site suffered progressive erosion, with several landslides that made it necessary to close the area temporarily for safety works. During years of legal disputes with a private individual who claimed ownership of a large part of the site, in 2020 the Public Prosecutor's Office of Agrigento also ordered the area to be seized. In a statement dated 30 May 2023, the Sicilian Region described the Scala dei Turchi as closed to the public since February 2020 because of the risk of collapses and erosion. The same statement announced an agreement between the Comune di Realmonte and the Parco archeologico e paesaggistico Valle dei Templi for limited-number access with guided visits. In 2023 the Scala dei Turchi was declared public property and placed under the management of the Parco archeologico della Valle dei Templi, with an entry ticket combined with the one for the Roman villa in contrada Durrueli.
For decades the cliff was damaged by carvings, graffiti, the removal of marl by tourists, uncontrolled bathing and illegal building. In 2013 an eyesore building that had disfigured the beach since the '80s was demolished. In January 2022 the cliff was smeared with red plaster powder and then cleaned by the Soprintendenza of Agrigento with the help of volunteers. Visit Sicily asks visitors not to break off or take away even a fragment of marl and warns of the risk of fines. Marl dust has no therapeutic or cosmetic properties.
Nearby
The nearest beaches are the Spiaggia di Punta Grande, 0.6 km to the east, the Spiaggia di Marinella, 1.6 km to the east, and the Spiaggia di Capo Rossello, 2 km to the west.
The Roman villa of Durrueli is a maritime villa from the first century AD, with mosaics and baths, at the mouth of the Cottone river. The villa lies a few hundred metres from the Scala dei Turchi. The May 2023 statement announced that the villa would reopen to visitors from the first of June, with free entry, after restoration work funded by the Parco archeologico Valle dei Templi. In the same 2023 statement, the regional councillor for cultural heritage spoke of an integrated ticket to visit the villa and the Scala dei Turchi together.
Sources
- Wikipedia (it) — Scala dei Turchi
- QualeSpiaggia — open data spiagge (CC BY 4.0)
- Scala dei turchi - Visit Sicily
- OpenStreetMap
- Wikipedia (en) — Scala dei Turchi
- Scala dei Turchi a Realmonte, Sicilia - Italia.it
- EEA — Bathing water quality 2025 (IT019084032005)
- Consultazione pubblica – Sito Natura 2000 - Scala dei Turchi | Regione Siciliana
- Archeologia, riapre villa romana a Realmonte. Scarpinato: «A breve percorso con la Scala dei turchi» | Regione Siciliana