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LOCATION AND TERRITORY

Calabria is a region in Southern Italy. It's considered the Caribbean of Europe thanks to its pristine beaches, stunning landscape, and rustic charms. Hillside towns, ancient Greek temples and Byzantine churches dot the countryside of Italy's best-kept secret.
The region is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea, the Ionian Sea that is to the east, the Tyrrhenian to the west and the Strait of Messina to the south. As such, the sea is a big part of the region's culture and cuisine.

In fact the sea is the main Calabrian tourist resource. The alternation of beaches and cliffs gives you the image of an uncontaminated natural paradise.
But if you like the mountain the Sila with its lakes Cecita, Arvo and Ampollino and its sky-lifts, the Pollino with its fauna and vegetation, the Serre and the Aspromonte are the ideal destination for a holiday in Calabria.

ACTIVITIES

The area is known as the local paradise for water sports like surfing, diving, fishing, sailing, water-skiing, sailing.
Calabria offers these sports activities all with lessons by qualified instructors for those who wish.
But you can enjoy also other activities like mountain climbing, bird watching, or trekking the many footpaths that cross the Calabrian mountains. These trips can also be made by horse, or by mountain bike.
In winter, the Calabrian mountains offer the possibility to ski, either alpine or Nordic.

WHAT TO VISIT

Catanzaro
The primitive urban centre is situated on three hills of “Silana” rock at 345 meters above sea level and enjoys a beautiful general view on the valleys of Musofalo and Fiumarella.
It's an old fishermen village, and today a hos­pitable and large seaside resort.
The old medieval suburb can be summed up in the church, now deconsecrated, of S. Omobono, and the ruins of the Castle built in 1060 by Roberto il Guiscardo in a defensive position on the far end of a hill, at its foot flows Fiumarella.

The baroque portals are the outstanding features of the old centre and of the most important churches of Catanzaro: the church of the Rosario, S. Giovanni’s; the Basilica dell' Immacolata and the Church of Monte dei Morti, the Church of the Osservanza with a Madonna by Gagini where one can admire marble and pictorial works of the sixteenth century.
On the main street Corso Mazzini there is Palazzo Fazzari, today Larussa, built in the nineteenth century according to the Florentine canons of the fifteenth century.
 
Crotone
The reference point of Magna Graecia history and culture, nowadays Crotone is a very modern town, an industrial and business centre.
Once stood as a Greek acropolis, nowadays one can find the oldest part of the town that keeps its medieval aspect untouched.
The old centre is rich in proofs of great architectural and artistic value. Beginning with the Cathedral where is kept the Madonna of Capocolonna, a Byzantine tablet coming from the Sanctuary of Capo Lacinio, according to tradition it has been brought from the Orient in the first years of Christianity.
11 kilometers away from Crotone stands the most loved symbol of Ionica Calabria: the column of Era Lacinia's Temple, the Doric column well-known all over the world is derived from a famous temple with paintings by Zeus, built in the sixteenth century B.C. it became the Italioti's sanctuary.

Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria is the oldest and most populous Calabrian town.
It was, together with Crotone and Sibari, one of the most import­ant colonies of Magna Graecia.
It stands on the cast coast of the Straits of Messina; it laces the Sicilian coast and is connected to it by ferryboats and hydrofoils.
From the bright seafront, among luxuriant grass plots, one can admire the “Fata Morgana”, an amazing phenomenon: thanks to a particular show of lights, the whole town is reflected on the sea.
Reggio is also a seaside resort.
Among pine trees, palms and oranges there are Greek ruins, the remains of huge walls of the 5th century and the Roman baths with mosaic floors that are evidence of a great past.
The Via Marina is magnificent.
The continuous flowering of the beautiful avenue, the deep blue of the sea facing it, the fascination of the sunsets that give beautiful colors to the landscape, all these make this avenue one of the most suggestive of Italy.

DON'T MISS

The Riace Bronzes
In the early 1980s a famous archaeological finding became the symbol of Calabria: the Riace Bronzes.
They are the two stupendous Greek statues dredged from the sea and exhibited, from the early 1980s, in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria, one of the most important archaeological museums of all the Italian Peninsula.
One of the two bronze statues is attributed to Fidia, the master Greek sculptor of the 5th century and famous for the Parthenon.

Tropea
Tropea is one of the most beautiful towns in Calabria lies along the south Tyrrhenian coast. Austere and majestic, Tropea rises out of the promontory of Monte Poro which lies between the two gulfs of Sant’Eufemia and Gioia.

It overlooks a mirror-like sky-blue, crystal-clear sea, with its incredible rocks: “La Pizzuta”, “Formicoli”, “San Leonardo” and “Isola Bella”.

The wild, white, sandy beaches which snake their way into little grottoes and creeks are interrupted by valleys and fertile, rippling hills full of fruit and citrus fruit trees, onion and vegetable fields, lime trees, bougainvillea, verbena, jasmine and other sweet-smelling Mediterranean plants.
 

A part from the limpid, unpolluted sea, Tropea itself has a fascinating historical and artistic profile, thanks to its patrician houses with their impressive entrances adorned by capitals with frescoes by important artists and to the numerous, ancient churches rich in sacred images recalling peculiar local legends.


Badolato
The village of Badolato has several Byzantine churches arranged in the shape of a Latin cross, and many small alleyways characteristic of medieval towns.
It is an agricultural center for the area on the Ionic side of the Calabrian mountain range, located on the northwestern slopes of Mount St. Nicholas.
Badolato is known as a centre of oil production and wine, which are largely exported.
Ruins of the perimeter walls of the Ravaschieri castle, said to date from the 17th century, still exist.
The Church of Sant'Isidoro, in the village of the same name, bears traces of Byzantine frescoes.
The Church of Sant'Andrea Avellino has two wooden busts of St. Andrew and St. Francis of Paola and valuable, sacred furnishings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Ruins of Rocceletta
Near the walled city of Badolato, in Calabria, are the impressive ruins of a Roman city. Recently discovered under a Baron's olive grove, 40 acres are being leased and excavated as a European Community project.

FOOD SPECIALTIES

Peperoncino is a fundamental ingredient to Calabrese cooking.

Morseddu. “U Morseddu” is the main course par excellence, unique, hardly imitable; even today it is eaten towards the middle of the morning in the typical restaurants of the old centre.
It is made of liver and lights, tomato-sauce and hot pepper; the whole thing is served on the characteristic “pitta”, a kind of soft ring-shaped bread without crust.

Soppressata is a popular dried sausage typical of the region.

Alici ripiene. Stuffed anchovies is a popular seafood dish.

Sardella is produced in some of the towns along the Ionian coast in the province of Cosenza. It is a spicy paste made with olive oil, mashed baby sardines and hot pepper.
'Nduja is a soft Calabrian salami made with a tremendous amount of red pepper, which gives it a threateningly reddish cast and a very refreshing burst of heat.

CLIMATE AND TRAVEL SEASON

In general the region's climate is mild in the winter, with hot, dry summers.
The weather of the Ionian Coast is considered to be unique in all of the Mediterranean.
This is the report issued by a European Community sponsored study by the Labtegnos Consortium, a team of international medical experts headquartered in Holland.
The report determined that Calabria's mountainous and seaside climates were the most consistent in Europe.
In particular the Ionian coast has the most stable weather conditions in Calabria and Europe as a whole.
With rare exceptions, this 100 miles stretch of the European continent is free from significant climate changes including severe precipitation, extreme changes of temperature, high humidity, negative pressure or other conditions that negatively influence persons with pathologic circumstances.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Festival del peperoncino. In the first week of September the village of Diamante honors the hot pepper with it’s own festival, dedicated to the unofficial symbol of Calabria -- the cayenne pepper.
During the festival, one can taste freshly harvested peppers or try locally produced products that make use of the spicy condiment -- anything from pasta to (yes) gelato. Olio Santo, olive oil infused with hot pepper, is sometimes added to a plate of pasta to give it a little extra zip.

Naca. “A Naca” is the Easter religious procession of Good Friday organized by all the parishes. It is a real costume performance of the procession that followed Jesus to the Crucifixion place.

The Feast of the Sailor'S Madonna takes place in Catanzaro at the end of July. The statue is wound through the streets on a big smack followed by hundred boats decked out with bright hangings and flowers.

The S. Lorenzo Exhibition is a one-week market where the typical handicrafts of the whole province are exposed; it takes place in the first ten days of August.
 
Roccella Ionica International Jazz festival. It takes place along the Calabria coast from August 16 up to 25. Squares, convents and churches will be the venues in the town of Roccella Ionica and surroundings.
The program also includes music therapy, music and dance, photography and music lessons given by the performing artists.

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