Entrance to the harbour of Messina.details

The harbour of Messina, today a large and modern city, was in the 1870s protected by a fort (still present). Today there is a large stone column with a statue on top of it very prominently placed on the nearest building. In the picture there is a steamship (combining steam and sail) and other ships and boats, as well as people along the nearer shore, busily waiting for mobile phones to be invented. Or perhaps some of them are tourists, judging by the gesture from the man with the hat towards the ladies with their parasols.