Between Scylla and Charybdis

There we stood, not between Scylla and Charybdis but in the Calabrian town of Scilla, where legend has it the monster once lived, staring out at where Charybdis might be. We were on the Italian mainland and in front of us was Sicily. We attempted to guess how far: was it half a mile away or three miles? Houses and even cars could be plainly discerned on the island, and the curve of the bay that led to the port of Messina was just as it appeared on the map. Nobody could possibly say that I have not seen Sicily.