Colapesce legend
The legend of Colapesce is an ancient Sicilian story that tells the story of a young man from Capo Peloro, with a passion for the sea.
It is said that Cola was a young man who lived near Capo Peloro in Messina and who spent all his days at sea. The sea was his whole life, his passion, and exploring the silent and immense depths made him more free and alive. But this passion of his was not well seen by his mother, because many times the boy had the habit of throwing his catch back to the sea, all the more so as one day the desperate cursed him by saying this phrase: "May you become like a fish!". As time went by, his skin became more and more scaly, his hands and feet like fins. His fame spread throughout Sicily, reaching the court of King Roger. The king wanted to know him and thus came to Messina where he immediately put his marine skills to the test by throwing a gold cup into the sea. Colapesce immediately threw himself into the sea recovering the precious object. The king rewarded him, but immediately subjected him to two more tests. This time the king threw a crown in a particularly deep point of the sea and while Colapesce was looking for it, he saw that Sicily rested on three columns: two were intact while the third was consumed by a fire that existed between Catania and Messina. Colapesce, returning to the surface, told King Roger what he saw, but the sovereign did not believe him and forced him, threatening him, to bring that fire back from the sea. Colapesce replied: "Your Majesty, do you see this piece of wood? I will dive with it, and if you see it rise up burnt, it means that the fire is really there, as I say; but it will also mean that I will be dead. , because the fire will burn me too."
Courageously Colapesce plunged into the sea and everyone from the king, to the nobles to the people of the people waited for him to return to the surface. But only the burnt piece of wood surfaced. Legend has it that Colapesce remained at sea in the middle of that fire to support, as it still does today, that badly combined column, so that his beloved land does not collapse and if every now and then the earth between Messina and Catania trembles a little, it's only because Colapesce changes sides of his shoulder.
