Elio Vittorini, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, was born in Syracuse in 1908. His final novel, “Le città del mondo” (The Cities of the World), from 1952-55 unfortunately remained unfinished and described Scicli as follows:
“The town of Scicli stands at the crossroads of three valleys, with houses all over the cliffs, a large square at the bottom of a river, and ancient ecclesiastical buildings that crown in several points, like Baroque acropolises, the semicircle of the altitudes…”