Basilicata and Calabria
More than any other regions of the Italian South, Basilicata and Calabria represent the quintessence of the mezzogiorno, the southern regions of Italy that are traditionally poor. After Unification in 1861, the area was largely neglected and sank into abject poverty that was worsened by emigration. Conditions here were immortalized in Carlo Levi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli – a vivid account of his time in exile during the Fascist era in which he describes a South characterized by apathy, where malaria is endemic and the peasants’ way of life is deeply rooted in superstition. Things have improved, particularly in Basilicata, although tourism is yet to bring the riches found to the north in Puglia and Campania.
In Basilicata, the greatest draw is Matera, whose distinctive Sassi – cavelike dwellings in the heart of the town – give it a uniquely dramatic setting. In the northern part of the region, Melfi and Venosa are bastions of medieval charm with important relics from the Byzantine and Norman eras. Of the region’s two coasts, the Tyrrhenian is most engaging, with spots like Maratea offering crystal clear water, a bustling harbour, and opportunities to discover remote sea grottoes. The Ionian coast is less charming, though worth a visit for its ancient sites in Metaponto and Policoro – ruins of the once mighty states that comprised Magna Graecia.
While conditions in Basilicata have improved, Calabria remains arguably more marginalized than it was before Unification. Since the war, a massive channelling of funds to finance huge irrigation and land-reclamation schemes, industrial development and a modern system of communications has brought built-up sprawl to previously isolated towns such as Crotone – often hand in hand with the forces of organized crime. The ’Ndrangheta Mafia maintains a stranglehold across much of the region. Having moved on from kidnappings and localized extortion to become an international network that deals in heroin and supposedly even nuclear waste, these days it’s thought to be far more powerful and dangerous than the Neapolitan Camorra.
Although unchecked development financed by the ’Ndrangheta has marred parts of the coastline, resorts such as Scilla, Tropea and Capo Vaticano are still charming, and have become favourite hideaway resorts for discerning Italian and foreign visitors. The interior of the region is dominated by the mountain grandeur of the Sila and Aspromonte ranges, offering excellent hiking and rustic local cuisine.
Regional food and wine >
Highlights >
Potenza and around >
Matera and around >
Basilicata’s Ionian coast >
Basilicata’s Tyrrhenian coast >
Calabria’s Tyrrhenian coast >
Reggio Calabria and around >
Cosenza and around >
The Sila >
Parco Nazionale Pollino >
Calabria’s Ionian coast >
Travel details >
Basilicata and Calabria transport
Good transport services exist in Basilicata, but in hilly and coastal areas, a car is useful. Be warned that if you’re planning on driving, the roads tend to be narrow and provincial and you should allow more time than you think you’ll need. There’s a mine of information on transport and the region in general at www.aptbasilicata.it. In Calabria there are reliable train services connecting the coastal towns, supplemented by regular buses. Again your own transport is critical for reaching the more remote mountainous interior.
Regional food and wine
The cuisine of Basilicata, also known as the cucina lucana (Lucanian cuisine), derives from a poor tradition that depended heavily on preserving food, especially pork and fruit, which are dried, and vegetables, which are preserved in oil. Arab influence still pervades in the form of aubergines and desserts incorporating figs, almonds and honey. Basilicata is an important producer of durum wheat, which is used to make fresh pasta, rustic breads prepared in wood-fired ovens, and friselle, stale bread softened with water, oil and tomatoes. Strong cheeses, like matured or smoked ricotta and aged caciocavallo are favoured. A rare breed of cows, the mucca podolica, grazes around Matera and the milk and meat they produce are wonderfully flavourful.
Calabria shares many culinary traditions with its neighbour. The trademark of Calabrian cuisine, however, is peperoncino, spicy chilli pepper, used liberally in many dishes, and thought to ward off illness and misfortune. Try the spicy sorpressata salami, ’Nduia, a hot peperoncino and pork fat spread. As in all southern cuisine, cheeses such as caciocavallo, mature provola and pecorino are ubiquitous. The cipolla rossa di Tropea is a sweet red onion used in rustic pies, meat dishes, and in sweet preserves called composte. For desserts, try mostazzolo, an almond cookie sweetened with honey or wine must, or anything containing bergamotto, a citrus fruit that grows along the south coast. Dried figs are a staple and can be found stuffed, dipped in chocolate, or simply arranged in braids or wheels.
Cirò is the success story of Calabrian wine-making. Made from the ancient gaglioppo grape, it has been given some modern touches and now shifts bottles outside its home territory. Not surprisingly, given its far-south position, Calabria also turns out sweet whites such as Greco di Bianco. The aglianico grape makes a star appearance in Basilicata: Aglianico del Vulture is the region’s only DOC; it’s been dubbed “the Barolo of the south” for its complexity, late ripening and long maturation. Other wines worth trying are the sweet, sparkling Malvasia and Moscato.
Highlights
Matera Sliced by a ravine containing thousands of Sassi – cave dwellings gouged out of rock – Matera’s unique landscape never ceases to astonish.
Cripta del Peccato Originale, Contrada Petrapenta The best example of the region’s distinctive rock-hewn churches, with vibrant eighth-century frescoes inside.
Tropea promontory This region has it all – white sandy beaches, turquoise water, hills tumbling down to the coast and – in Tropea town and Pizzo – two of the most beautiful old centres in Calabria.
Bronzi di Riace Two extraordinary, seven-foot-high, bronze statues of Greek athletes housed in Reggio’s Museo Nazionale.
Purple Codex, Rossano An illustrated manuscript from the sixth century with fascinating early depictions of the life of Christ.
Capo Colonna A solitary Doric column marks the spot of what was the most important Greek temple on the Ionian coast.
Potenza and around
Way up in the northwest of Basilicata, the regional capital, POTENZA, has suffered badly from the effects of earthquakes and war, which have robbed it of much of its historical heritage. However, there are three train stations and a bus terminal, and should you find yourself obliged to stop here for a connection, a trip to the town’s major attraction, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Mon 2–8pm, Tues–Sun 9am–8pm; €2.50), next to the cathedral, is a good enough way to pass the time; it is home to the region’s most important collection of finds from the prehistory of Lucania (the Roman name for Basilicata), plus some well-preserved ceramics, terracottas and statuettes from Greek Metapontum.
North of Potenza lie several towns from the Norman era with some good examples of their brand of hybrid architecture. All are connected by bus with Potenza, and most are on the main Potenza–Fóggia rail line.
Melfi
North of Potenza on the SS93, on the far side of the imposing Monte Vulture (1326m), the historic town of MELFI was long a centre of strategic importance, taken by the Normans in 1041 and their first capital in the south of Italy. Repeatedly damaged by earthquakes, the town’s formidable hilltop castle now contains a museum (Mon 2–8pm, Tues–Sun 9am–8pm; €2.50) housing prehistoric finds and objects from the Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras. The museum’s most celebrated item is an exquisitely carved Roman sarcophagus from the second century, showing the image of the dead girl for whom it was made, reclining on cushions, with five statuettes of gods and heroes on the sides.
In the centre of town off Via Vittorio Emanuele II is the Duomo, originally twelfth-century but almost entirely rebuilt in 1700. After the 1930 earthquake, a Byzantine-style Madonna and Child fresco was brought to light, which you can see to the left of the altar; to the left of this is another Madonna, in her role as protector of the city – a copy of the original statue stolen from here in 1982. The cathedral’s campanile has miraculously survived the various cataclysms: the two black stone griffins symbolized the Norman hegemony in the region and are visible everywhere in Melfi, having been adopted as the town’s emblem.
Behind the Duomo on Piazza IV Novembre, a former seminary houses a clean and roomy hotel, 
Il Tetto (0972.236.837, www.albergoiltetto.com; €60 and under). You’ll find an excellent restaurant-pizzeria a little way down from the cathedral at Via Vittorio Emanuele 29, the Delle Rose (0972.21.682; closed Thurs), with outdoor seating in summer. The baccalà alla trainera – salt cod with peperoncino – is particularly delicious. All first courses cost €9, and mains are €12, while for those on a tight budget there are pizzas or panini and chips with a drink for €6–8 (no pizza at lunch).
Venosa
If Melfi preserves the appearance of a dark medieval town, nearby VENOSA has an attractive airiness; a harmonious place surrounded by green rolling hills and neatly divided parcels of farmland. Known in antiquity as Venusia, it was in its time the largest colony in the Roman world, and much is made of the fact that it was the birthplace of the poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known to English speakers as Horace (65–8 BC). His supposed house lies off Corso Vittorio Emanuele past Venosa’s cathedral (by appointment 339.480.7431; free), where one large room shows a reconstruction of his living quarters, with a bed and kitchen utensils.
The town’s chief attraction is the Parco Archeologico (Mon–Wed 9.30am–1.30pm & 3–6pm, Tues 3–6pm; €2.50), located just outside the centro storico at the bottom of the Corso. The complex consists of ruins from the Roman era including housing, shops and mosaics. The adjacent Abbazia della Trinità, a sprawling abbey begun in the eleventh century and used as the resting place of various Norman bigwigs including Robert Guiscard, is now in a state of partial ruin but the perimeter walls and some decorations survive. Finds from the park and church can be seen inside the Castello Ducale, in the main piazza at the top of Corso Vittorio Emanuele (same times and price as Parco Archeologico). The Corso also has an elegant B&B, the Orazio, at no. 136 (0972.31.135, www.hotelorazio.it; €60 and under).
Matera and around
The town of MATERA, in the interior of Basilicata, dates from the Middle Ages when Byzantine and Benedictine monks built rock-hewn churches and monasteries into what are now called the Sassi – literally “stones” – an intricate series of terraced caves. Later, farmers, seeking safety from invasions, also settled in the Sassi, fashioning their homes, stables and shops out of the rock, creating one of Italy’s oddest townscapes and its most significant troglodyte settlement. During the Spanish Bourbon era wealthy Sassi dwellers were able to move out of the cave dwellings to the plain above, while the masses were left in abject squalor below. The unhealthy living conditions were recorded in Carlo Levi’s 1945 memoir Christ Stopped at Eboli, in which the author’s sister compared the Sassi to Dante’s Inferno, so horrified was she by their disease-ridden inhabitants. During the 1950s twenty thousand people were forcibly removed from the Sassi and rehoused in modern districts in the new town.
Nowadays it’s hard to picture the conditions that previously existed here; EU funds and private investments have poured in, and the area has been cleaned up and repopulated with homes, B&Bs, hotels, restaurants and workshops. In 1993, the city and its grotto-filled outskirts were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in 2003 Mel Gibson filmed his controversial The Passion of the Christ here.
Arrival and information
Matera’s train station is on Piazza Matteotti and is served by the FAL line, linked to Altamura and Bari in Puglia and to Potenza and Ferrandina in Basilicata. SITA buses also stop here, connecting Matera to Miglionico, Montescaglioso, Policoro and Metaponto. Marino buses (080.311.2335, www.marinobus.it), running twice daily from Naples, stop on the edge of town at the Matera Nord station, Villa Longo, connected to the centre by local buses (every 20–30min). Matera has no main tourist office – the task has been devolved to autonomous info-points scattered around the centre, the most useful of which is on Piazza Vittorio Veneto (daily 8.30am–1pm & 2.30–9pm; 0835.314.359 or 346.094.7270), but any can help you with basic information and provide maps; the website www.aptbasilicata.it is a useful resource.
Accommodation
Apart from Maratea, Matera is the only place in Basilicata where you might have difficulty finding a room for the night – booking a week or so in advance is highly recommended. A lot of new B&Bs and some beautiful hotels have recently opened in the Sassi themselves, which are probably the most atmospheric places to stay – although of course the swish furniture, modern plumbing and decor would be unrecognizable to any former sasso dweller.
Capriotti Piazza Duomo 0835.333.997, www.capriotti-bed-breakfast.it. Three tastefully decorated, light-flooded rooms, each with its private entrance and own outdoor space, in the vaulted rooms of a restored sixteenth-century sasso close to the Duomo. No credit cards. €61–90
Italia Via Ridola 5 0835.333.561, www.albergoitalia.com. Matera Piano’s most modern hotel, catering mostly to business travellers, where Mel Gibson and his cast stayed, and the best option if you don’t fancy sleeping in a cave. €91–120
Le Monacelle Via Riscatto 9/10 0835.344.097, www.lemonacelle.it. Built into a former convent and conservatory, this small hotel near the Duomo also has hostel accommodation from €18 per person. €61–90
Locanda di San Martino Via Fiorentini 71 0835.256.600, www.locandadisanmartino.it. A lovely hotel in the Sassi built into a former carpenter’s workshop and a deconsecrated chapel. The rooms are beautifully furnished, fragrant and cool. €91–120
Sassi di Matera Via Civita 28, Sasso Barisano 0835.332.744, www.sassidimatera.com. This place is really extraordinary: a beautifully styled hotel in the Sassi incorporating a honeycomb of cave-like, underfloor-heated rooms with state-of-the-art showers, Philippe Starck baths, and furnishings reclaimed from abandoned rural buildings. Breakfast and aperitifs are served in a former cave church, or on the terrace overlooking the gorge. It costs a fortune, but you’ll never forget it. €301–400
The Town
Most visitors to Matera head straight for the atmospheric Sassi, and understandably so, but Matera Piano – the “new” town above begun in the seventeenth century – is worthy of exploration, too, with a host of churches and a livelier feel.
The Sassi
Divided into two sections – Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano – the Sassi district can be entered from a number of different points around the centre of town, some signposted, some not. Via Buozzi weaves through both zones and is a useful reference point, although you will need to leave it in order to penetrate the warren of chiese rupestri, or cave churches (all open daily, roughly 10am–6pm; free). Note that there’s no sun cover, flights of steps are unavoidable, and you’d do well to take some water. To get the most out of the whole area equip yourself with an itinerario turistico and a map, both available from the various tourist offices, or take a tour.
The most spectacularly sited church, Santa Maria de Idris, is perched on the conical Monte Errone that rises in the midst of the Sassi. Inside are frescoes dating from the fourteenth century. The most interesting interior is found in the Convicinio di Sant’Antonio. This former monastery complex of four interlinking thirteenth-century churches was turned into wine cellars in 1700 – look for the spouts for wine emerging from what appears to be an altar – and later into houses. Of particular interest are tombs in the floor converted into water tanks that demonstrate considerable ingenuity: the porous stone had to be waterproofed, and rainwater channelled into the tanks.
Built on a rocky spur rising above the Sassi, the thirteenth-century Duomo retains a strong Apulian-Romanesque flavour. Between the figures of Peter and Paul on the facade is a sculpture of the patron of Matera, the Madonna della Bruna. Every July 2, a painting of the saint is carried through the streets on a papier-mâché float. At the end of the day-long festivities, onlookers storm the float and break it apart, believing the pieces offer protection and blessings.
Below the Duomo in the Palazzo Pomarici, MUSMA (Tues–Sun: April–Oct 10am–2pm & 4–8pm; Nov–March 10am–2pm; €5) is a museum of contemporary sculpture appropriately set in rooms carved from the rock. Its permanent collection features works by Picasso, Pomodoro and Gio’ and there are regular temporary exhibits.
The Case Grotte
For a fascinating glimpse of what life was like for the Sassi-dwellers, head for one of the four Case Grotte in various parts of the Sassi, including one near the Convicinio di S. Antonio, another on Via Fiorentini (usually open daily 9am–1pm & 3–6pm; around €1.50). Reconstructed inside a grotta and using original furniture, utensils and clothes, these give insights into how families with several children and livestock managed to live together in one-room cave dwellings. If you want to explore the caves and more chiese rupestri in the Parco della Murgia (0835.336.166, www.parcomurgia.it) on the far side of the ravine, there are several entrances from SS7 northwest of Matera. The park is best seen with a guide – Ferula Viaggi organizes excursions – who can lead you to some of the hundreds of hypogeums and rock-hewn churches in the park’s eight thousand hectares.
Sassi tours
For access to parts of the Sassi you might miss on your own, you can join a two-hour guided tour – Ferula Viaggi, on Via Cappelluti 34 in the new town (0835.336.572, www.ferulaviaggi.it), charges around €50 for groups of up to five in English (less in Italian). Alternatively, you can arrange tours in English or Italian of three of the chiese rupestri through Sassi Tourism at Via Lucana 238 (0835.319.458 or 338.237.0498, www.sassitourism.it) for €15 per person. La Scaletta, a local cultural association, also arranges tours at variable prices (0835.336.726, www.lascaletta.net).
The new town
The centre of “new” Matera, built in the seventeenth century, is Piazza Vittorio Veneto, a large and stately square, which in the evening is given over to a long procession of shuffling promenaders. The materani take their evening stroll seriously, and the din of the crowds rising up out of this square can be like the noise from a stadium. Matera’s modern quarters stretch out to the north and west of here, but most of the things worth seeing are along the Via Ridola, and Via del Corso.
Winding off from the bottom end of the piazza, the narrow Via del Corso leads down to the seventeenth-century church of San Francesco d’Assisi (daily 7.30am–noon & 4–7pm), whose ornate Baroque style was superimposed on two older churches, traces of which, including some eleventh-century frescoes, can be visited through a passage in the third chapel on the left. In the main church are eight panels of a polyptych by Bartolomeo Vivarini, set above the altar. From San Francesco, you can head to the bar-strewn Piazza del Sedile just above the Sassi or on to Via Ridola to admire the elliptical facade of the Chiesa del Purgatorio (daily 8.30am–12.30pm & 4–7pm), gruesomely decorated with skulls.
Eating and drinking
Thanks to the surge in tourism, there’s plenty of choice for eating in Matera. In spite of its close proximity to the sea, traditional Materan food is dominated by meat dishes. You’ll find lots of cafés and bars around Piazza San Pietro Caveoso and along Via Buozzi in the Sassi or near Piazza Vittorio in Piano.
Camera Club Via S. Biagio 13 335.109.9603. In a set of caves on the edge of the Sassi near Piazza Vittorio, this watering hole prepares delicious panini and light meals, accompanied by cold beer. There is an outdoor seating area in the evening. Open from 9pm until late; closed Mon.
Il Borghese Via Lucana 198 0835.314.223. Frequented by locals, this restaurant has great antipasti and typical lucana dishes such as cavatelli con peperoni cruschi (pasta with sundried peppers) and agnello grigliato (grilled lamb). Fixed-price menus cost €27 and €30. Closed Wed except Aug.
Il Terrazzino Vico San Giuseppe 7 0835.334.119. Enjoy the view over the Sassi at this atmospheric spot, over a meal of oven-baked orecchiette al tegamino (with local sausage, tomatoes and mozzarella), or la pignata, a dish of oven-roasted lamb with vegetables and cheese. There’s a tourist menu priced at €15; eating à la carte should cost €20–25. Closed Tues and two wks July.
Lucanerie Via S. Stefano 61 0835.332.133. This cheerfully decorated trattoria offers some of the best and most abundant antipasti misti in town, but save room for specialities like tortino di formaggio di capra (a creamy goat’s cheese dessert). Meals from around €25 a head. Closed Sun dinner & Mon.
The Cripta del Peccato Originale and Montescaglioso
Some 14km south of Matera in CONTRADA PETRAPENTA, the Cripta del Peccato Originale (Crypt of Original Sin; Tues–Sun tours at 9.30am, 11am, 12.30pm, 3.30pm, 5pm & 6.30pm; 320.535.0910, www.artezeta.it; €8) is lauded as the “Sistine Chapel of cave churches”. Inside, late eighth-century frescoes depict surprisingly dynamic Old Testament scenes, saints, and angels on a white background embellished with tendrils of red flowers. Note that you need to book by phone in order to visit; tours last around an hour.
Twenty kilometres southeast of Matera and served by buses from the town, the hilltop village of MONTESCAGLIOSO was once a Greek settlement and is now the site of the magnificent eleventh-century Benedictine abbey of San Michele (daily 10am–1pm & 3–7pm, 3–5pm in winter; €4 includes guided tour; closed Mon afternoon), commanding great views over the Bradano valley. You could easily spend a few hours here exploring the town’s winding backstreets. For food, head to Caveosus on Via Chiesa Maggiore 1 (0835.201.912; closed Tues) where a delicious home-cooked meal will cost €15. If you want to stay, L’Orto di Lucania on SP175, 3km west of Montescaglioso (0835.202.195, www.ortodilucania.it; €61–90) is an agriturismo with a wonderful restaurant (booking essential). The rooms and apartments are well kitted out and there’s a pool and lovely grounds with fruit trees.
Basilicata’s Ionian coast
A leisurely thirty-minute drive from Matera, Basilicata’s Ionian coast from Metaponto to Policoro consists of a mountainous interior backing onto a seaboard punctuated only by holiday resorts, a plethora of campsites – overflowing in the summer months – and some notable historical sites. Of these, the most significant are connected with the periods of Greek occupation, the most recent of which was that of the Byzantines, who administered the area on and off for five hundred years.
Metaponto
The most extensively excavated of the Greek sites, and one of the few places of any real significance on the Ionian coast of Basilicata, is at METAPONTO, an important road and rail junction connecting the coastal routes between Táranto and Reggio with the interior of Basilicata – to Potenza by train and Matera by bus. Metapontum was settled in the eighth century BC and owed its subsequent prosperity to the fertility of the surrounding land – perfect for cereal production (symbolized by the ear of corn stamped on its coinage). Pythagoras, banished from Kroton, established a school here in about 510 BC that contributed to an enduring philosophical tradition. The city’s downfall came as a result of a series of catastrophes: absorbed by Rome, embroiled in the Punic Wars, sacked by the slave-rebel Spartacus, and later desolated by a combination of malaria and Saracen raids.
The Town
Metaponto today is a straggling, amorphous place, comprising train station, museum, ruins, and modern apartment buildings. Arriving at the station, you’re in Metaponto Borgo. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Mon 2–8pm, Tues–Sun 9am–8pm; €2.50), at Via Aristea 21, is a short walk north. The exhibits are mainly fifth- and fourth-century-BC statuary, ceramics and jewellery, and there’s a small but fascinating section on the new insights revealed by the study of fingerprints on shards found in the artisans’ quarter. The tourist office (June–Sept daily 9am–1pm & 4–7pm; 0835.745.606, www.prolocodimetaponto.it) is nearby on Piazza Giovanni XXIII.
From the Borgo, follow Via di Apollo 500m east to the entrance of the Parco Archeologico (daily 9am to 1hr before sunset, but opens 2pm Mon; free; check opening at 0835.745.327), which has the remains of a theatre and a Temple of Apollo Licius. The latter is a sixth-century-BC construction that once possessed 32 columns, but you need some imagination to picture its original appearance. In a better state of preservation, the Tavole Palatine (same times), or Temple of Hera, is a few kilometres northwest where the main SS106 crosses the River Bradano. With fifteen of its columns remaining, it is the most suggestive remnant of this once mighty state. Between June and August, buses leave from the train station and head to the Parco Archeologico and Tavole Palatine; enquire at the tourist office or station for schedules.
Lido di Metaponto
Some 3km south of Borgo, LIDO DI METAPONTO has sandy, well-equipped beaches, numerous campsites and a handful of hotels. Of the campsites, Camping Internazionale on Viale delle Nereidi Grecia (0835.741.916, www.villageinternazionale.com) is small but clean, right opposite the beach, and has bungalows as well as pitches for tents and campers. The best-value hotel is the modern Kennedy at Via Ionio 1, about 1km from the station, off the Lido road (0835.741.960, www.hrkennedy.it; €61–90). It has some apartments as well as rooms, and may be half-board only in high season.
Policoro
There’s a fabulous collection of antiquities at the newly renovated Museo Nazionale della Siritide, 25km down the coast, just behind the village of POLICORO on Via Colombo 8. Buses from the bus station in the centre of the village stop a fifteen-minute walk from the museum (Wed–Mon 9am–8pm, Tues 2–8pm; €2.50), which contains clay figurines and jewel-bedecked skeletons, among other items. The artefacts were unearthed in the area between the Sinni and Agri rivers, in its time one of the richest areas on this coast and site of the two Greek colonies of Siris and Heraclea. The latter was where Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, first introduced elephants to the Romans, and, although winning the first of two battles in 280 BC, suffered such high losses that he declared another such victory would cost him the war – so bequeathing to posterity the term “Pyrrhic victory”. The ruins of Heraclea are just behind the museum and although in a poor state, they’re worth a wander. For food, Pitty is a terrific, if oddly named, fish restaurant in Piazza Dante near the bus terminal (closed Mon Oct–May).
Basilicata’s Tyrrhenian coast
The northern stretch of Basilicata’s Tyrrhenian coast is the most visited part of the entire region (Matera is a close second), its sheer cliffs and rocky coves refreshingly unspoilt by the holiday industry. The obvious stop here is Maratea, hemmed in by the mountains and offering some first-rate beaches that get overcrowded in summer.
Maratea
MARATEA’s chief allure is its coastal villages – Acquafredda, Cersuta, Fiumicello, Porto, Marina and Castrocucco – which stretch for 35km along a beautiful rocky coastline. Most of the action – and accommodation – is in or around the little seaside area of Fiumicello, 5km north of Maratea Paese (the inland part of Maratea), though the chic elite who have colonized much of the area prefer to be seen in the bars and restaurants of Marina di Maratea, directly below Maratea Paese – if nothing else, a pleasant place to stroll around and gawp at the yachts. The whole area is well endowed with sandy beaches, including those at Fiumicello and Acquafredda; most are well signposted, but don’t hesitate to explore the less obvious ones. The coast is also home to fifty or so grottoes, most accessible only by boat; enquire at the tourist office for boat rental agencies.
If you fancy some exercise, try climbing up to Monte San Biagio (624m), the highest point above Maratea. The peak is dominated by the Redentore, an enormous marble Christ symbolically positioned with its back to the sea, looking towards the mountains of the interior. Opposite the statue, and looking as if it were about to be crushed under the giant’s feet, is an eighteenth-century church, the Santuario di San Biagio, dedicated to the town’s patron saint. On the second Sunday of May, a statue of the patron saint is carried up the hill in a large procession.
Practicalities
Most trains stop at the main Maratea station, at the bottom of Maratea Paese, from where it’s a five-minute minibus or taxi ride (or a 20-minute walk) to Fiumicello. There are also stations at Acquafredda and Marina di Maratea. SITA runs buses along the coast and to other towns in Basilicata year-round and there is a minibus service running between mid-June and mid-September (roughly hourly; buy tickets on board) that connects Marina di Maratea, Fiumicello and Maratea Paese in that order. The tourist office is on Piazza del Gesù in Fiumicello (July & Aug daily 8am–2pm & 4–8pm; Sept–June Mon & Thurs 8am–2pm & 3–6pm, Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 8am–2pm; 0973.876.908, www.aptbasilicata.it).
Accommodation can be hard to come by at any time, and in high season is often expensive, with many hotels requiring half board during the peak period. To avoid this, you may do better to rent a room – ask for a list from the tourist office. The most distinctive hotel in Maratea Paese is La Locanda delle Donne Monache, Via C. Mazzei 4, sited in an elegantly renovated eighteenth-century convent (0973.876.139, www.locandamonache.com; April–Oct; €151–200). The more functional Fiorella, at the top of the main Via Santa Venere on SS18 (0973.876.921; €61–90), is a spacious and basic hotel, open all year round. Further along this same road at Via Rasi 4/C, B&B Laino (0973.876.506 or 328.975.7216, www.beblaino.it; €121–150) has six rooms, an apartment and a small pool.
There are dozens of restaurants in the area; most along the coast serve fish and/or pizza and are open May to October and weekends-only the rest of the year. Some of the best are in Fiumicello, where, signposted off Via Santa Venere, El Sol’s pizzas and seafood dishes, such as mussels and swordfish, generally pull in a big local crowd (0973.876.928). Il Sacello at La Locanda delle Donne Monache prepares the best in local cuisine, both land- and sea-based – try the linguine con baccalà e peperoni cruschi (linguine with cod and fried pepper flakes).
Calabria’s Tyrrhenian coast
The northern stretch of the Tyrrhenian coast in Calabria is peppered with holiday complexes that crowd the flat littoral. There are some attractive places to break the journey, notably the towns of Diamante, Belvedere and, further south, Paola. Following the coast down, the main SS18 runs alongside the railway line, though the frequent trains don’t always stop at smaller places.
From the Savuto River down to Reggio, the SS18, autostrada and main rail line all run parallel along the coast, apart from the stretch of the Tropea promontory. The plain that stretches east from here, the Piana di Sant’Eufemia, is the narrowest part of the Calabrian peninsula, much of it reclaimed only in the last hundred years from malarial swamp: the mosquitoes remain but they no longer carry the disease. Lamezia has Calabria’s main airport (0968.414.333, www.sacal.it), mainly used for domestic flights, while Sant’Eufemia-Lamezia is the rail and road junction for Catanzaro and the Ionian coast. Heading south on the highway you begin a slow ascent on the long viaduct that is one of the engineering feats of the Autostrada del Sole, the views growing more inspiring as it rises above the coast to the high tableland of the Tropea promontory.
Diamante and Belvedere
On a small promontory jutting into the Tyrrhenian, DIAMANTE has a lively seafront promenade and narrow whitewashed lanes harbouring moderately priced fish restaurants. Most relaxed is the Taverna del Pescatore (0985.81.482; closed Thurs) at Spiaggia Piccola (beyond the jetty), with outside seating and views over the small port – expect to pay around €40 for a full meal, excluding drinks. If you want to stay, try the Riviera Bleu on the seafront at Via Poseidone 8 (0985.81.363, www.hotelrivierableu.it; April–Oct; €91–120), a modern place with a nice open-air restaurant and direct access to the beach.
Belvedere Marittimo, some 10km further down the coast, overlooks its unexceptional marina from a spur a little way inland. It’s an imposing and elegant town, full of greenery and having little of the air of neglect typical of Calabria’s older centres. At the top, an impressive castle stands guard, originally a Norman construction but rebuilt under the Aragonese, whose coat of arms can be seen above the main gate. The inside has been gutted, however, and it’s closed to the public. Down in Belvedere Marina, the best place to eat is D&D on the Lungomare (0985.84.697; closed Tues mid-Sept to mid-June), a restored old warehouse with outside seating, which serves pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven alongside such specialities as home-made gnocchetti with shellfish); a full meal will set you back around €30.
Paola
About 40km further down the coast, the sizeable town of PAOLA is an important rail and road junction for Calabria’s interior, and the site of the Santuario di San Francesco di Paola, in a ravine above the town. Not to be confused with Francis of Assisi, this St Francis spent most of his life here in Paola and, as Calabria’s principal saint, is venerated throughout the south. People visit the shrine at all times of year, but particularly during the week leading up to the May 4 festa.
There are a few reasonably priced hotels around the station by the sea, but Paola’s bargain is the Casa del Pellegrino San Francesco di Paola, off the SS18 coast road above the town and just outside the Santuario itself, aimed at pilgrims but open to all (0982.611.457, www.hotelsanfrancescodipaola.it; €60 and under). There are also a couple of decent places to eat near Paola’s central piazza: the Eureka, Via del Cannone 27 (0982.587.356; closed lunchtime & Tues), a trattoria with outdoor seating in summer which does good fish from around €10, and Le Arcate (0982.585.377; closed Mon in winter), a pizzeria at Via Valitutti 9.
Pizzo
Following the railway or the SS18, you might want to spend some time in the picturesque little town of PIZZO, overlooking the sea. Just off the main Piazza della Repubblica here, the small, well-preserved castle is worth a look (daily: summer 8.30am–8pm; winter 8.30am–7pm; €2.50). Built in 1486 by Ferdinand I of Aragon, it holds the room in which the French general Joachim Murat was imprisoned, with some of his personal effects and copies of the last letters he wrote, and the terrace where he was shot in October 1815. Murat, Napoleon’s brother-in-law and one of his ablest generals, met his ignominious end here after attempting to rouse the people against the Bourbons to reclaim the throne of Naples given to him by Napoleon; the people of Pizzo ignored his haughty entreaties, and he was arrested and court-martialled.
A couple of kilometres north of the centre, signposted off the main road into town, you might drop in on the Chiesetta di Piedigrotta (daily 9am–1pm & 3–7.30pm, closes 5pm in winter; tickets €2.50 from Bar Aquarium near the entrance), a curious rock-hewn church next to a sandy beach. Created in the seventeenth century by Neapolitan sailors rescued from a shipwreck, the church was later enlarged and its interior festooned with eccentric statuary depicting episodes from the Bible. Most of this was the work of a local father-and-son team, and it was augmented by another scion of the family in 1969, who restored the works and contributed a scene of his own, a double portrait of Pope John XXIII and President Kennedy.
Practicalities
Pizzo has a tourist office at the bottom of Piazza della Repubblica (summer daily 9.30am–1.30pm & 3–8pm; 0963.531.310, www.prolocopizzo.it). There are good places to stay, though as it’s a beach resort booking is essential in the summer. Very near the castle on Via Armonia is the clean little B&B Casa Armonia (0963.533.337 or 339.374.3731, www.casaarmonia.com; €61–90; no credit cards), with a friendly owner and a terrace overlooking the sea. Another good option is A Casa Janca (0963.264.364 or 349.574.7135; €61–90), a first-rate agriturismo signposted off the main road out of town heading north. Furnished in traditional rustic style, the place is locally renowned for its restaurant, where non-guests can also dine for around €30 on local specialities such as zuppa di cipolla (onion soup); half board costs €120 for two.
There’s a good choice of places to eat in Pizzo clustered around Piazza della Repubblica. On the piazza is Pizzeria La Ruota (0963.532.427; Oct–May closed Wed) where pizzas cost €4–7 – try the house speciality, La Ruota, with tuna, olives and peppers. Alternatively, walk down to Lungomare Colombo for a range of seafood restaurants, one of them, La Nave (Oct–May closed Wed), in the form of a ship. Between April and July you can sample the local tuna or swordfish, for which Pizzo is a fishing centre. Make sure you also try the famous local ice cream, tartufo di Pizzo – a portion is a bit like eating a whole box of chocolate truffles.
Tropea and around
Southwest of Pizzo, TROPEA can claim to be the prettiest town on the whole of the southern Tyrrhenian coast, built right on the edge of steep cliffs, towering high over its beach. It is also (after Maratea in Basilicata) the most fashionable, with a seaside charm missing from many of the other Calabrian resorts, though the charm can wear pretty thin in the face of the tourist influx during the summer months.
Arrival and information
Trains from Lamezia, Reggio Calabria, and surrounding coastal villages arrive at Tropea’s station located on the outskirts of the centro storico, 1km from the beach. In summer, regular bus services link the coastal resorts to Tropea, but transport is more infrequent out of season.
Tropea currently has no tourist office, though some of the travel agencies in the centre can provide basic information. There’s internet access at Quellilà della Bottega Artigiana, below the central Piazza Ercole at Largo Ruffa 5/6 (June–Oct Mon–Sat 10am–1pm & 4–9pm, Sun 5–9pm, closes midnight July & Aug).
Accommodation
In August it is vital to book accommodation ahead; Tropea is the best-known resort on the Calabrian coast and consequently expensive, too.
Camping Marina del Convento 0963.62.501, www.marinadelconvento.it and Camping Marina dell’Isola0963.61.970, www.maregrande.it. Right on the beach at the base of the cliff below Tropea’s centre on Via Marina del Convento, these two adjacent campsites have similar facilities, though Marina del Convento also has small, simple bungalows and apartments for €300 a week in mid-season, rising to €900 a week in Aug. May–Oct.
Porta del Mare Via Libertà 52 0963.607.041, www.valentour.it. An old, remodelled palazzo provides modern comforts near the centre, with a terrace overlooking the sea. Rooms are small but well equipped. €151–200
Villa Italia Via della Vittoria 7 0963.666.194, www.bbvillaitalia.it. This bright, modern B&B near the centre (behind the post office) provides the best value in town, but book early to ensure availability. All rooms have a/c, TV and private bathroom. €91–120
Virgilio Viale Tondo 21 0963.61.978, www.hotel-virgilio.com. A blandly furnished but welcoming family-run three-star that requires half-or full board in high season. €121–150
The Town
There are numerous beaches around the town, all within walking distance of the centre, and the buildings have character without being twee – see particularly the lovely Norman cathedral at the bottom of Via Roma, whose interior harbours a couple of unexploded American bombs from the last war (one accompanied by a grateful prayer to the Madonna), a Renaissance ciborium and a statue of the Madonna and Child from the same period. The views from the upper town over the sea and the church of Santa Maria dell’Isola on its rock (closed for restoration) are superb, and on a clear day you can see the cone of Strómboli, and sometimes other Aeolian Islands looming on the horizon.
Eating and drinking
Tropea has more trattorias per square metre than any other town in Calabria, often with budget tourist menus. Nightlife, meanwhile, is tranquil, with good wine bars and ice-cream parlours in which to while away the evening. Most places are closed from October to Easter.
La Cantina del Principe Largo Galluppi 18 0963.61.400. Authentic, moderately priced Calabrese dishes served in a converted cellar or at tables outside; mains from about €10, though prices rise for the month of Aug.
La Munizione Largo Duomo 12. Chic cocktail bar behind the cathedral, with a roof terrace boasting excellent views. It serves around 130 wines, cocktails from €5 and meals for around €25. Closed Mon Oct–May.
Le Volpi e L’Uva Via Pelliccia 2/4, signed off Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 0963.61.900. Intimate enoteca and restaurant, with around 300 wines and seafood dishes around the €10 mark.
Osteria del Pescatore Via del Monte 7 347.531.8989. Excellent, good-value fish served up in a vaulted cellar around the corner from the cathedral; a big plate of spaghetti alla tropeana is around €8.
Vecchio Forno Via Caivano, off Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. The most historic place to eat in town, serving crisp, freshly baked pizza for around €4 – the smell of peperoncino is heavenly. Dinner only.
Capo Vaticano
Further around the promontory, CAPO VATICANO holds some of the area’s most popular beaches, including Grotticelle and Tonicello, both spacious enough to allow you to get away from the bustle. Grotticelle has a campsite immediately above it, Quattro Scogli (0963.663.126, www.quattroscogli.it; April–Oct), where you can also rent self-contained apartments (from €1000 a week in high season for a two-room place); a few minutes’ walk further up the road is a hotel run by the same management (half board obligatory in Aug; €91–120).
Scilla
Heading south along the coast, the proximity of Sicily becomes the dominant feature. This stretch of the autostrada can claim to be one of the most panoramic in Italy, burrowing high up through mountains with the Straits of Messina glittering below. Travelling by train or following the old coastal road, you pass through SCILLA, with a fine sandy beach and lots of action in the summer. Known as Scylla in classical times, this was the legendary location of a six-headed cave monster, one of two hazards to mariners mentioned in the Odyssey, the other being the whirlpool Charybdis, corresponding to the modern Cariddi located 6km away on the other side of the Strait. Crowning a hefty rock, a castle separates the main beach from the fishing village of Chianalea to the north. If you want to stay centrally in Scilla, try Albergo Le Sirene on Via Nazionale 57 (0965.754.019; booking advisable in summer; €91–120); ask for one of the four front rooms facing the sea. For the best fish restaurants head to Chianalea, where Il Pirata at Via Grotte 22 (0965.704.292; Oct–June closed Wed) has tables right over the water and offers pasta dishes for €9 – including excellent maccheroncini con pesce spada (pasta with swordfish) – and mains for €12.
Ferries to Sicily from Villa San Giovanni
Some 9km from Scilla, Villa San Giovanni is worth stopping at only as a point of embarkation for Sicily. State-run FS ferries (892.021, www.ferroviedellostato.it) leave from directly behind the train station about every thirty minutes (less frequently Sun and hols) and arrive at the train station in Messina in about forty minutes; if you’re travelling by car it’s more convenient to catch one of the private Caronte ferries (800.627.414, www.carontetourist.it), under the train tracks to the right of the station, which leave approximately every twenty minutes and pull in closer to the entrance of the autostrada. Both companies charge around €1.50 for foot passengers and €30 for cars.
If you’re heading for Reggio, take a train or one of the city buses or Costa Viola buses from outside the station.
Reggio Calabria and around
As you approach REGGIO CALABRIA, the provincial capital, you travel through some of the most extreme landscapes in the south. Dilapidated villages lie stranded among mountains, which are themselves torn apart by wide fiumare, or riverbeds – empty or reduced to a trickle for most of the year, but swelling with the melting of the winter snows to destructive torrents. Reggio itself was one of the first ancient Greek settlements on the Italian mainland; today, it’s Calabria’s biggest town by some distance, with a population of over 180,000 – but also one that’s been synonymous for years with urban decline and the influence of the ’Ndrangheta Mafia. Although efforts to regenerate the city are evident wherever you look, there’s little to detain you here for more than a day and most travellers use it merely as a gateway to Sicily or the Aeolian Islands.
Arrival, information and accommodation
There is a small airport (0965.642.232, www.sogas.it) outside Reggio, serving primarily Italian destinations, with frequent bus connections to the centre. If you’re arriving by train, get off at Reggio Lido for the port or museum. Buses end up at the Reggio Centrale station, 1km or so down the long Corso Garibaldi. You may want to make use of city buses for getting from one end of town to the other (almost all buses stop at both the museum and the station); tickets cost €0.80 from kiosks and tabacchi. There are several internet points around the station and along Corso Garibaldi. There are tourist offices at the station (Mon–Sat 8am–2pm & 2.30–8pm; 0965.894.518) and at Via Roma 3 (Mon & Wed 9am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm, Tues, Thurs & Fri 9am–12.30pm; 0965.22.530, www.prolocoreggiocalabria.it).
Accommodation options are reasonable, with the clean, central B&B Delfina at Via Crocefisso 58 (334.161.3905, www.bb-delfina.com; €61–90), near the Duomo. Otherwise try the Hotel Lido at Via Tre Settembre 6 (0965.25.001, www.albergolido.com; €91–120), a three-star with cheerful rooms at the other end of the Corso, near the Lido station.
The Town
The Museo Nazionale at the northern end of Corso Garibaldi (closed for restoration at the time of writing) is Reggio’s main draw. It holds the most important collection of archeological finds in Calabria, full of items dating from the Hellenic period, with examples from all the major Greek sites in Calabria, including the famous pinakes or carved tablets from the sanctuary of Persephone at Locri. The most renowned exhibits in the museum are the Bronzi di Riace: two bronze statues dragged out of the Ionian Sea in 1972 near the village of Riace. They are shapely examples of the highest period of Greek art (fifth century BC), and especially prized because there are so few finds from this period in such a good state of repair. While the Museo Nazionale is closed, the Bronzi are displayed at the Palazzo del Consiglio nearby at Via Portanova (daily 9am–7pm; free). When it reopens, you will also be able to view examples of Byzantine and Renaissance art, including two works by Antonello da Messina.
Reggio’s other must-see attraction is the Piccolo Museo di San Paolo at Via Reggio Campi 4 (Wed, Sat & Sun 9.30am–noon, but check it’s open at 0965.892.426; free), an impressive private collection of religious art including some 160 Russian icons and a St Michael attributed to Antonello da Messina. A stroll along the lungomare seaside esplanade is pleasant, affording wonderful views of the Sicilian coastline and, occasionally, Mount Etna. There are remains of sixth-century-BC city walls and a Roman bathing complex at the southern end before the Villa Comunale. Just east of the ancient baths stands the Duomo (daily 8am–noon & 4–8pm), heavily restored after an earthquake.
Ferries from Reggio to Sicily and the Aeolians
From Reggio’s port, Ústica Lines (0965.29.568, www.usticalines.it) and Metromare (0923.873.813, www.metromaredellostretto.it) run hydrofoils (roughly hourly; 15–30min; €4) to Messina. There are also regular hydrofoil services to the Aeolian Islands (summer 3–4 daily to each island; winter 1 daily; €17.50–19.60). For transporting a car to Messina, the most frequent service is from Villa San Giovanni, though Meridiano (0965.810.414, www.meridianolines.it), which runs ferries primarily for commercial vehicles from Reggio to Messina and to Tremestieri, a few kilometres south of Messina, will carry other vehicles too (every 2hr Mon–Sat; €12 per car).
Eating and drinking
There are a handful of eating places around Corso Garibaldi, including the casual and good-value Spaccanapoli at Via Fata Morgana 3 (0965.312.276; closed lunchtime Sat & Sun), which offers self-service lunches, pastas and pizzas for €4–9. Worthy of the hike 1.5km north of the Museo Nazionale to Vico Leone, Baylik serves up the city’s best fish (0965.48.624), including spaghetti with fiori di zucca e pesce spada (courgette flowers and swordfish) and excellent grilled prawns for around €35 for a full meal. The best gelateria in town is Cesare, a kiosk on Piazza Indipendenza between the Lido train station and the Museo Nazionale.
Aspromonte
Most visitors to Reggio leave without having ventured into the great massif of Aspromonte, the last spur of the Apennines on the tip of Italy’s boot. Here you can be on a beach and a ski slope within the same hour, passing from the brilliant, almost tropical vegetation of the coast to dense forests of beech and pine that rise to nearly 2000m. Although it recently became a national park, the thickly forested mountain has not yet shown any sign of becoming a tourist destination. This is mostly due to its reputation as the stronghold of the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, and as such most Italians would think you mad for going there. On top of this, the area remains virtually unsigned, and the oppressive tree cover rarely breaks to provide views. If you’re in a car take notice of the Strada Interotta (“Road interrupted”) signs that you’ll find at the entrances: you should not even think about attempting the rocky dirt tracks across the range unless you are driving an off-road vehicle.
If the walking and hiking still draws you, you will find access to the Aspromonte range is easiest from the Tyrrhenian side, with several buses a day leaving Reggio’s Piazza Garibaldi for Gambarie and winding their way up the highly scenic SS184 from Gallico, through profusely terraced groves of vine and citrus to the village of SANTO STEFANO, famous as the birthplace and final resting place of the last of the great brigands who roamed these parts, Giuseppe Musolino (1875–1956). Occupying a sort of Robin Hood role in the popular imagination, Musolino was a legend in his own lifetime, the last thirty years of which he spent in jail and, finally, a lunatic asylum – the penalty for having led the carabinieri on a long and humiliating dance up and down the slopes of Aspromonte during his profitable career. Just above the village, in the cemetery, you can see Musolino’s grave, now renovated but until recently daubed with the signatures of people come to pay their respects.
If you’re in the region in late summer it’s worth timing your visit to see the large fair that takes place every year on the first two days of September at the Santuario della Madonna di Polsi, a 10km hike from the park entrance: an unashamedly pagan event that involves the sale and slaughter of large numbers of goats. Its popularity has a darker side, however: the fair is well known to provide a convenient cover for the annual meeting of ’Ndrangheta cells from all over the world.
Cosenza and around
In Calabria’s interior, COSENZA is a burgeoning city with a small and clean historic centre surrounded by rings of featureless modern construction. The one thing worth seeing in town is the stately Duomo (daily 8.30am–noon & 4–7pm) in the historic town centre on the main street, Corso Telesio. Consecrated on the occasion of Frederick II’s visit to the city in 1222, it contains the lovely tomb of Isabella of Aragon, who died in Cosenza in 1271 while returning with her husband Philip III – seen kneeling beside her – from an abortive Crusade in Tunisia, as well as a copy of a thirteenth-century Byzantine icon, the Madonna del Pilerio, which was once carried around the country during times of plague.
Tradition has it that under the Busento River in Cosenza is the burial place of Alaric the Goth, the barbarian who gave the Western world a jolt when he prised open the gates of Rome in 410 AD. Struck down for his sins by malaria while journeying south, he was interred here along with his booty, and the course of the river deviated to cover the traces, lending Cosenza a place in history and giving rise to countless, fruitless projects to discover the tomb’s whereabouts.
In the new town, you might take a stroll around the pedestrianized main axis, Corso Mazzini, and Piazza Bilotti to see half a dozen open-air sculptures by the likes of Dalí, De Chirico and Pietro Consagra, part of a bequest that makes up the Museo all’Aperto Bilotti, or MAB.
Practicalities
The bus station is below Piazza Fera, from where it’s a twenty-minute walk down the length of Corso Mazzini to the hotels and the centro storico. Arriving by train, you have to take a bus (every 20min) from the train station a little way outside town – buy your ticket from the bar inside the station.
Hotels are mostly soulless, business-traveller places, but there are one or two nicer alternatives. In the old town, the Ostello Re Alarico at Vico Serra 10, just above the River Crati (0984.792.570 or 328.114.9430, www.ostellorealarico.com; €60 and under), occupies an eighteenth-century palazzo with antique furnishings, accommodation in double rooms or dormitories and the use of a kitchen and internet, and there’s a garden for summer barbecues. Alternatively, try the Excelsior on Piazza Matteotti (0984.74.383, www.htlexcelsior.it; €60 and under), a spacious, comfortable and well-furnished hotel close to the historic centre.
For eating try Calabria Bella (0984.793.531) in the old town on Piazza Duomo, which has outside seating in summer and serves traditional local dishes; a generous mixed plate of antipasti can be had for about €8. There are numerous cafés and pubs, but the best aperitif is to be found at the old-fashioned Gran Caffè Renzelli, up past the Duomo on Corso Umberto.
Around Cosenza
If you’re spending any time in Cosenza, you’ll probably be mostly interested in excursions into the Sila highlands, but some of the villages dotted around the surrounding hills shouldn’t be ignored. In summer, the streets are lively until late, and at night the views over the bowl of the valley are magnificent, with glittering threads and clusters of light. It’s also in the summer that the village festas normally take place, with each comune vying to outdo the others in terms of spectacle and expense.
The hilltop village of RENDE holds the prize for the tidiest village in the region: it has good views and an absorbing little museum (Mon, Wed & Fri 9am–1pm, Tues & Thurs 9am–1pm & 3–6pm; free) in the Palazzo Zagarese, on Via de Bártolo, devoted to local folk art, costumes, cuisine, music, the Albanian community and emigration. Rende also boasts a decent choice of places to eat and drink, including the rustic-looking Hostaria de Mendoza, at Piazza degli Eroi 3 (0984.444.022; closed Wed), which offers fresh truffles and a range of meat dishes for €10–15.
Northeast of Cosenza, above the village of Luzzi, stands the Abbazia di Sambucina. A Cistercian abbey founded in the twelfth century and long the centre of this order of monks throughout the south, it has a beautiful, lightly pointed portal (rebuilt in the fifteenth century) and the original presbytery. Buses for the villages depart from the bus station in Cosenza, below Piazza Fera, but to get the most out of these places you ideally need your own transport, as services normally stop at nightfall.
The Sila
Covering the widest part of the Calabrian peninsula, the Sila massif, east of Cosenza, is more of an extensive plateau than a mountain range, though the peaks on its western flank reach heights of nearly 2000m. Protected by the Parco Nazionale della Sila (www.parcosila.it), it’s divided into three main groups, the Sila Greca, Sila Grande and Sila Piccola, of which the Sila Grande is of most interest to tourists.
At one time the Sila was one huge forest and was exploited from earliest times to provide fuel and material for the construction of fleets, fortresses and even for church-building in Rome, resulting in a deforestation that helped bring about the malarial conditions that for centuries laid much of Calabria low. The cutting of trees is now strictly controlled, and ancient pines (the so-called Giganti della Sila), which can live for several hundred years, are among the region’s chief attractions. There’s plenty here, too, for the outdoors enthusiast: in summer the area provides relief from the heat of the towns; and in winter there’s downhill and cross-country skiing.
The Sila Grande
Densely forested, and the highest, most extensive part of the Sila range, the Sila Grande is home to Calabria’s main ski slopes as well as the region’s three principal lakes – all artificial (for hydroelectric purposes) and much loved by fishing enthusiasts, who come out in force at weekends. If you want to spend any time up here, the campsites enjoy good lakeside locations, while the hotels are mainly in the towns and villages, and many close out of season.
Camigliatello
The town of CAMIGLIATELLO is the best known of the resorts, a functional place that’s well connected by bus with Cosenza, though it lacks any intrinsic charm. Centred on Via Roma, the town has three ski slopes of its own, and another in Contrada Moccone (a satellite of Camigliatello 3km west), plus a confusion of hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. If you fancy skiing, day-passes are available from €15 and you will find the slopes have facilities for renting equipment (from €20 per day). Several ski clubs offer tuition (group lessons from €20 per person per hour). For information call the tourist office. The Sila terrain also makes ideal riding country, though most stables are open in summer only; the tourist office can arrange outings.
Practicalities
The Pro Loco tourist office at the top of Via Roma keeps slightly erratic opening hours (in theory 9.30am–12.30pm & 3.30–6.30pm, closed Mon Oct–June; 0984.578.159), and has maps of the area and suggestions for walking routes in the park. If you want to stay, try the plain but inexpensive Miramonti on Via Forgitelle (0984.579.067, www.miramontisila.it; €60 and under), which has a restaurant preparing simple local cuisine, or the comfortable and slightly pricier Cristallo, Via Roma 91 (0984.578.013; €61–90), which also has a restaurant.
For a snack in Camigliatello, Bar Campanaro at the top of Via Roma has the best pastries, panini and other fast food, while Contrada Moccone has a great-value trattoria, Da Fulvio (0984.578.790; closed Mon except in Aug), which is known for good-value, simple local cooking, using wild mushrooms and wild boar (around €15 for a full meal). Some 3km outside Camigliatello in the other direction, at Contrada San Lorenzo, the snazzy, modern La Tavernetta has a well-deserved reputation for some of Calabria’s best gourmet food at fairly reasonable prices – it’s worth booking ahead (0984.579.026).
The Strada delle Vette
Camigliatello is a useful starting-point for a tough hike that takes in the area’s highest peaks, following the Strada delle Vette (“road of the peaks”) for 13km through pine and beech woods before forking off and up to the three peaks of Monte Scuro, Monte Curcio and, highest of all, Monte Botte Donato (1928m). The trail, which is often snowbound between December and May, continues on down to Lago Arvo and the resort of LORICA, from where it’s a shorter distance than following the Strada delle Vette to reach Botte Donato. Or you can save the sweat and take the chair lift from Località Cavaliere, just outside town.
Connected with Cosenza by bus, arriving in the morning and returning in the afternoon, Lorica, like Camigliatello, is dedicated to tourism in the height of the winter and summer seasons, but its lakeside location makes it a more relaxed spot, with lots of places for picnicking under the pines and observing the antics of the black squirrels that inhabit them. Lorica also has a comfortable four-star hotel, Park 108 at Via Nazionale 86 (0984.537.077, www.hotelpark108.it; €91–120), which doesn’t ask for half board in high season and has a sauna and fitness centre.
Activities in the Parco Nazionale Pollino
From horseriding to hiking, there are plenty of activities on offer in the park. Try the following operators:
CAI (Club Alpino Italiano) Via C. Pepe 74, Castrovillari 334.100.5054, www.caicastrovillari.it. The Italian Alpine Club can arrange hikes and nature trails with English-speaking guides.
Ente Parco Complesso Monumentale Santa Maria della Consolazione, Rotonda 0973.669.311, www.parcopollino.it. The official national park office, with information on activities and hiking maps.
Ferula Viaggi Via Cappelluti 34, Matera 0835.336.572, www.ferulaviaggi.it. Multi-day hiking or biking excursions with guides and lodging.
Viaggiare nel Pollino0973.669.290, www.viaggiarenelpollino.com. Thematic tours, hiking, biking and rafting excursions. The website has a mine of information on the park.
Parco Nazionale Pollino
Straddling Basilicata and Calabria, the Parco Nazionale Pollino (Pollino National Park) is Italy’s largest, covering an area of nearly two thousand square kilometres. It is named for the Massiccio del Pollino, a massif in the southern Apennines that reaches a height of 2248m, offering spectacular views over pine forests, plains, limestone slopes, and beyond, to both the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas. That, and its other major peaks such as the Serra Dolcedorme (2267m), are best explored on organized hiking excursions aimed at seeking out the park’s rare flora and fauna which include the cuirassed pine (the park’s symbol), the roe deer and the golden eagle.
The park’s lower slopes are home to nearly sixty villages, best seen by car, as public transport connections are irregular. From Calabria, one logical gateway is LAINO BORGO, just off the A3 autostrada, known for its Santuario delle Cappelle, fifteen chapels frescoed with scenes from the life of Christ. From here, it is a short drive to Laino Castello, an eerie medieval hamlet abandoned after an earthquake in the 1980s that holds commanding views over the Lao river valley. The park’s limestone terrain is particularly susceptible to erosion, which gives rise to its many grottoes including the Grotta del Romito in PAPASIDERO. Many guided excursions depart to the Pollino massif from Papasidero, though the town itself is worth a stroll for its elaborately carved portals that precede churches and palazzi nobili. Near the park’s eastern boundary are several towns – Acquaformosa, Civita, San Basile, San Costantino Albanese and San Paolo Albanese among them – founded between 1470 and 1540 by Albanian refugees fleeing persecution by the Turks. Here language, costume and religious customs have a decidedly eastern flavour.
Calabria’s Ionian coast
Calabria’s Ionian coast is a mainly flat sandy strip, sometimes monotonous but less developed than the Tyrrhenian side of the peninsula, and with cleaner water. At the border with Basilicata, mountainous slopes soon give way to the wide Piana di Sibari, the most extensive of the Calabrian coastal plains, bounded by Pollino to the north, the Sila Greca to the west and the Sila Grande in the south. The rivers flowing off these mountains, which for centuries kept the land well watered and rich, also helped to transform it into a stagnant and malarial mire, and although land reclamation has restored the area’s fertility, without visiting the museum and excavations at Sybaris you could pass through the area with no inkling of the civilization that once flourished on these shores. Southeast of here, the old Byzantine centre of Rossano and Crotone, another ancient Greek city, provide further interest as you travel along the coastline.
The southern part of Calabria’s Ionian seaboard is less developed than the rest of the region, perhaps because it’s less interesting scenically and most of the seaside towns and villages strung along it are unappealing. If you like sandy beaches, though, this is where to find them – either wild and unpopulated or, if you prefer, glitzy and brochure-style, as at Soverato. At Locri there’s the region’s best collection of Greek ruins and, overlooking the coast a short way inland, the craggy medieval strongholds of Squillace and Gerace.
Sybaris
Long one of the great archeological mysteries tantalizing generations of scholars, the site of ancient SYBARIS (Sibari) was only definitely identified in the late 1960s, when aerial and X-ray photography confirmed that the site previously known to be that of Roman Thurium was also that of Sybaris. There are in fact three separate levels of construction that have been unearthed here, one Greek and two Roman, one on top of the other. Together these make up one of the world’s largest archeological sites, covering a thousand hectares (compared with Pompeii’s fifty), though only ten hectares have so far been dug up.
The excavations lie across the rail lines, some 4km south down the SS106, on the right-hand side (Tues–Sun 9am to 1hr before sunset; free). Most of them belong to the Roman period, but something of the earlier site might still be turned up – the silt and sand of the river bed have yet to be explored properly, work having been effectively halted for much of the last twenty years owing to shortage of funds. Of the Roman city, the remains are at least impressively displayed and maintained, including baths, a patrician’s house with mosaics, and a decumanus – main street – claimed to be the widest in existence. There’s more to be seen, from here and other local sites, at the Museo della Sibaritide (Tues–Sun 9am–7.30pm; €2), down a left turn about 1km before the excavations, on the banks of the River Crati.
A life of luxury
The wealth of Sybaris was only one factor in its fame. The inhabitants of the city – said to number 100,000 – were so fond of luxury and their excesses so legendary that we derive the modern word sybarite from their reputation. The city’s laws and institutions were apparently made to ensure the greatest comfort and wellbeing of its citizens, including the banning from the city of all noisy traders, such as metalworkers, and the planting of trees along every street for shade. Cooks were so highly prized that they were apparently bought and sold in the marketplace for great sums and were allowed to patent their recipes, while inventions ascribed to the Sybarites include pasta and the chamberpot. This was all too much for the Crotonians, who under their general Milo destroyed the city in 510 BC, diverting the waters of the river over the site to complete the job.
Rossano
Down the coast, the resort of Rossano Scalo has far outstripped its parent-town of ROSSANO in terms of size and bustle, and most of the holiday-makers who frequent its beaches never even get round to visiting the hilltop town, 7km up an awkward winding road – something that has helped to preserve the old centre from excessive development. The foremost Byzantine centre in the south, Rossano was the focus of a veritable renaissance of literature, theology and art between the eighth and eleventh centuries, a period to which the town’s greatest treasures belong. Its majolica-tiled cathedral is an Angevin construction largely rebuilt after an 1836 earthquake, but it does have a much-venerated ninth-century Byzantine fresco, Madonna Achiropita, whose Greek epithet, meaning “not painted by hand”, refers to its divine authorship.
Next to the cathedral, the Museo Diocesano (mid-June to mid-Sept daily 9.30am–1pm & 4.30–8pm; mid-Sept to June Tues–Sat 9.30am–12.30pm & 4–7pm; Sun 10am–noon & 4.30–6.30pm; €3) contains the famed codex purpureus Rossanensis, or Purple Codex, a unique sixth-century manuscript on reddish-purple parchment illustrating the life of Christ. The book, which was brought from Palestine by monks fleeing the Muslim invasions, is open at one page, but you can leaf through a copy and see, among other things, how the Last Supper was originally depicted, with Christ and his disciples not seated but reclining on cushions round the table, and all eating from the same plate.
In contrast to the cathedral’s grandiosity, the diminutive church of San Marco (daily 9am to 1hr before sunset; free), at the end of Corso Garibaldi on the edge of town, retains a primitive spirituality. The five cupolas of the tenth- or eleventh-century construction, surrounded by palms on a terrace that looks out over the gorge below, impart an almost Middle Eastern flavour.
Practicalities
There’s a Pro Loco tourist office in Piazza Matteotti in the centro storico (Mon–Sat 10am–noon & 5–7pm; 0983.030.760, www.prolocorossano.it), but all the hotels are in the modern lower town, none of them especially cheap nor lovely. Murano at Viale Mediterraneo 2 in Lido Sant’Angelo (0983.511.788, www.hotelmurano.it; €121–150) at least has great sea views and a maritime feel, while Scigliano (0983.511.846, www.hotelscigliano.it; €91–120), at Viale Margherita 257, 50m up from the level crossing heading towards town, is a family-run place with an award-winning restaurant. For camping, Oriental Park (0983.290.266, www.orientalpark.altervista.org) is less than 1km north of Rossano Scalo and has chalets for rent (€61–90).
Up in the old town, just off Piazza Anargiri in Via San Bartolomeo, you’ll find the town’s best trattoria, La Villa, offering alfresco eating in summer (0983.522.214; dinner only; Sept–June closed Tues). It serves typical Calabrese food, with lots of local sausage and tomatoes; a full meal will cost €15–20 a head. There’s another, slightly cheaper and more casual place, La Bizantina (0983.525.340; dinner only; Sept–June closed Mon), right outside San Marco, which has great antipasti (try the peperoni e patate – roast red peppers and potatoes).
Crotone and around
South of Rossano lies an empty stretch of beach, with, inland, the vineyards of Cirò, the source of Calabria’s best-known wine. Crossing the River Neto into the fertile Marchesato region, you’ll have your approach to CROTONE (the ancient Greek city of Kroton) blighted by a smoky industrial zone – not the most alluring entry into a city, but a rare thing in Calabria, and a reminder of the false hopes once vested in the industrialization of the region. In spite of this, Crotone today has an agreeable, unspoiled old centre, and makes a good base for the beaches that spread to the south and for the Greek ruins at Capo Colonna.
Arrival, information and accommodation
Arriving by train you may want to take a taxi or bus to cover the 1.5km to the centre of town, Piazza Pitagora, and most of the hotels. The bus station is on Via Ruffo, a couple of streets east of Piazza Pitagora. There’s a tourist office in the old town at Corso Vittorio Emanuele 12 (summer daily 9am–1pm & 4–7pm; winter Mon–Fri 9am–1pm & 4–6pm, Sat 9am–1pm; 0962.921.857).
There are two good accommodation choices in the old town: round the corner off Piazza della Vittoria, the rather dingy entrance of the Concordia (0962.23.910, www.hotelconcordiakr.it; €61–90) belies this hotel’s small but attractive rooms, while behind the tourist office at Via Cavour 7, Palazzo Berlingieri (333.743.2092 or 388.895.8935, www.gettinidivitalba.it; no credit cards; €60 and under) is Crotone’s most characterful option: a beautifully restored eighteenth-century palace run by a women’s cooperative that includes workshops and meeting rooms as well as guest rooms for “cultural tourists”. For more conventional holiday accommodation – and a bit of luxury – Residence Casarossa on Via per Capocolonna (0962.934.201, www.casarossa.it; €91–120) boasts a private beach and all mod cons.
The Town
The site of ancient Kroton has been entirely lost, but in its day this was among the most important colonial settlements of Magna Graecia, overshadowed by its more powerful neighbour Sybaris, but with a school of medicine that was famous throughout the classical world and closely linked with the prowess of the city’s athletes, who regularly scooped all the honours at the Olympic Games back in Greece. In 530 BC the mathematician and metaphysician Pythagoras took up residence in Kroton and it went on to be the foremost of the Greek cities in Calabria. However, increasingly destabilized by internal conflicts the city was eventually destroyed by the Romans. A resurgence of sorts occurred in the thirteenth century when it was made the main town of the Marchesato region, a vast feudal domain held by the powerful Ruffo family of Catanzaro. But its prosperity was always hindered by the scourge of malaria, provoking the author George Gissing – himself a victim of malaria during his visit in 1897 – to condemn Crotone as “a squalid little town”.
The town’s Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Tues–Sun 9am–1pm & 3–7pm; €2.50) on Via Risorgimento holds the best collection of finds from Magna Graecia on the Ionian coast. Most noteworthy is the so-called Treasure of Hera, a beautifully restored group of bronze statuettes – including a sphinx, a gorgon, a horse, a winged siren and a very rare nuraghic boat from Sardinia dating from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC. The most dazzling item is a gold diadem, expertly worked with garlands of leaves and sprigs of myrtle.
Eating and drinking
As for eating, Crotone is one of the best places in the region for seafood, being blessed with some of the least over-fished waters in the Mediterranean and a couple of talented chefs. The excellent Da Ercole (0962.901.425; Sept–June closed Sun), on the seafront at Viale Gramsci 122, is run by Ercole Villirillo, who runs cookery classes all over the world, and is one of the few places where you can sample such dishes as linguine a pitagora (which feature prine, a kind of sea anemone) or ricciola with wild artichokes (ricciola con carciofi selvatici). Above and behind Da Ercole on Via di Bártolo is the equally highly rated La Sosta (0962.902.243; closed Sun dinner and all July & Aug). A meal at either place will probably weigh in at around €50, though La Sosta also offers set-price menus for €25 and €30. In the centre, Caffè Italia next to the Concordia off Piazza Pitagora is good for a refreshing latte di mandorla (almond milk) or the local speciality of rose-shaped pastries (closed Sun in summer).
Inland to Santa Severina
From Crotone’s bus office on Via Ruffo there are a couple of departures daily to SANTA SEVERINA, on the eastern fringes of the Sila Piccola. A Byzantine fortified town built on a hilltop, it’s well worth a detour, principally for the Norman castle that dominates it. Rebuilt by Robert Guiscard on the ruins of a Byzantine stronghold and remodelled by the Swabians and Angevins, the renovated castle holds a first-rate museum (April–Sept daily 9.30am–12.30pm & 3.30–6.30pm, closes 7pm in summer; Oct–March Tues–Sun 9.30am–12.30pm & 3.30–6.30pm; €5), taking in all parts of the construction from the foundations to the first-floor rooms. From the stout battlemented walls long views extend over the hilly surroundings towards the mountains of the Sila. On the other side of the piazza, whose flagstones are studded with symbols of the zodiac, the Duomo lies adjacent to an eighth-century Byzantine baptistry (ask the cathedral’s nuns to open it for you), which preserves traces of frescoes of the saints, Greek inscriptions on the capitals and its original font. On the other side of the Duomo, the Museo Diocesano also repays a visit (same times as museum; €2.50), containing a painfully graphic fifteenth-century Christ on the cross, an early printed edition of the Bible, and – its greatest treasure – the Spilla Angioina, a brooch from about 1300, studded with gold, pearls and rubies. If you’re looking for a full meal in Santa Severina, try the Locanda del Re (0962.51.662) on the steps below the castle which, thanks to serving as the canteen for the town police, is open every day. Food is rooted in the medieval traditions of the area, so expect handmade pasta, lots of wild mushroom, boar, ricotta and pecorino on the fixed-price menus (€10–25). The owners also have little apartments to rent (lalocandadelre@alice.it; €91–120) in the centro storico, also available for one night.
A nice alternative, 3km outside town at Cerzeto off the SS107, is the Agriturismo Il Querceto (0962.51.467 or 328.262.0680, www.agriturismoilquerceto.kr.it; no credit cards), a fifty-hectare organic farm which raises beef and grows citrus fruit and olives. They have rooms and apartments, a swimming pool, and mountain bikes to rent. You can stay on a B&B basis (€60 and under) or half board (€45 per person).
Capo Colonna to Le Castella
Another worthwhile excursion from Crotone is to the famed column at CAPO COLONNA on Calabria’s extreme eastern point, for which you have to drive or walk 11km along the coast. The column is a solitary remnant of a vast structure that served as the temple for all the Greeks in Calabria. Dedicated to Hera Lacinia, the temple originally possessed 48 of these Doric columns and was the repository of immense wealth before being repeatedly sacked as Magna Graecia and Hellenism itself declined.
There are some excellent bathing spots not far south of here. The Isola Capo Rizzuto is a spit of land, not an island, with a choice of sandy or rocky inlets to swim from. During the winter the resort is dead, but it can get quite congested in the height of summer and difficult to find a place to stay. Nearby LE CASTELLA is another busy holiday spot, but not yet strangled by tourism. It would be hard to spoil the beautifully sited Aragonese fortress (Tues–Sun 9am to 1hr before sunset; €3) on an islet just off the main town. You could wander round the outside of the castle and swim off the rocks, though you’ll probably be more tempted by the arc of beach to the south. For food, you can’t do better than L’Aragonese (0962.795.013), right opposite the castle, serving lots of fresh fish and pizzas in the evening.
Catanzaro and Squillace
Despite its fine position, set high up in the foothills of the Sila and with good views out to sea, Calabria’s regional capital, CATANZARO, has little innate charm. It’s a crowded, overdeveloped, traffic-ridden city, within a short ride of some five-star beaches, but otherwise best avoided. There’s more interest further on down the coast at the ruined basilica of Santa Maria della Roccella, or La Roccelletta, 100m down the road that branches off the SS106, signposted towards San Floro and Borgia. Half-hidden in an olive grove, this partly restored redbrick shell is all that remains of what was once the second-largest church in Calabria (after Gerace). Of uncertain date, though probably Norman in origin and founded by Basilian monks, it still has a mighty impact on the unsuspecting viewer. The church is part of a larger Zona Archeologica (daily 9am to 1hr before sunset; free) of the Roman town of Scolacium. The best-preserved item here is a theatre, once able to hold some 3500 spectators, and thought to have been abandoned following a fire some time after 350 AD.
Some 5km further south along the coast, at Lido di Squillace, is the turn-off for the old town of SQUILLACE, 8km up in the hills, once an important centre but now just a mountain village, isolated on its high crag. There are lofty views to be enjoyed over the Gulf and beyond Catanzaro as far as the Sila Piccola mountain range, and the Castle (usually daily 9am–1pm & 2–6pm, but if closed ask at the comune on Piazza Municipio; 0961.914.020) is one of the most romantic collections of ruins in Calabria. The place is probably most renowned for its associations with Cassiodorus, whose monastery was located in the vicinity – though all trace of it has long since disappeared. Cassiodorus (480–570), scholar and secretary to the Ostrogoth, Theodoric, used his position to preserve much of Italy’s classical heritage against the onset of the Dark Ages and the book-burning propensities of the Christians. Retiring to spend the last thirty years of his life in seclusion here, Cassiodorus composed histories and collections of documents – of invaluable use to historians.
Soverato
South of Squillace, the golden sands of SOVERATO beckon, a resort that is increasingly attracting the international market. The private lidos hold sway here, charging up to €15 for a day under a parasol on a clean beach with access to a bar, but it’s easy to find free beaches by following the coast away from town in either direction if you fancy more seclusion. Accommodation options include a couple of two-stars: San Vincenzo, Corso Umberto I 296 (0967.21.106, www.sanvincenzosoverato.com; €61–90), in the centre of town; and the Riviera on Via Regina Elena (0967.25.738; €61–90), with sea views. Slightly more upmarket are the well-equipped Gli Ulivi, Via A. Moro 1 (0967.521.194, www.hotelgliulivi.it; €91–120), which has its own strip of beach and requires half-board in peak season (€72 per person). The Campeggio Glaucocampsite at Località San Nicola (0967.25.533; open mid-June to Aug) is 1km north of Soverato and faces onto the beach.
Locri
Continuing south, you soon come to the most famous classical site on this coast, Locri Epizefiri (daily 9am until 1hr before sunset; free), some 5km beyond the resort town of Locri. Founded sometime in the seventh century BC, the city of Locri was responsible for the first written code of law throughout the Hellenic world. Its moment of glory came in the second half of the sixth century when, supposedly assisted by Castor and Pollux, ten thousand Locrians defeated 130,000 Crotonians on the banks of the River Sagra, 25km north. The walls of the city, traces of which can still be seen, measured some 8km in circumference, and the excavations within are now interspersed over a wide area among farms and orchards. A car would be useful to reach some of the more far-flung features, though the most interesting can be visited on foot without too much effort, including a fifth-century-BC Ionic temple, a Roman necropolis and a well-preserved Greco-Roman theatre. In any case make a stop at the museum (Tues–Sun 9am–7pm; €3) to consult the plan of the site, and examine the most recent finds, including a good collection of pinakes, or votive ceramics – though most of the best items have been appropriated by the Museo Nazionale in Reggio.
Gerace
After the Saracens devastated Locri in the seventh century AD, the survivors fled inland to found GERACE, on an impregnable site that was later occupied and strengthened by the Normans. At the end of a steep and tortuous road 10km up from modern Locri, its ruined castle stands at one end of the town on a sheer cliff; it’s usually accessible, though officially the site is out of bounds due to the very precarious state of the paths and walls. Easier to visit is the Duomo (daily 8am–noon & 4–6pm; free), founded in 1045 by Robert Guiscard, enlarged by Frederick II in 1222 and today still the biggest church in Calabria. Its simple and well-preserved interior has twenty columns of granite and marble, each different and with various capitals: the one on the right nearest the altar in verde antico marble that changes tone according to the weather. There’s an attractive hotel-restaurant in Gerace, the Casa di Gianna (0964.355.024, www.lacasadigianna.it; €121–150; closed Nov) on Via Paolo Frascá 4, a gem of a four-star with just ten rooms and a terrace restaurant.
Travel details
Trains
Cosenza to: Naples (5 direct daily; 4–5hr; 6 daily via Paola; 3–6hr); Paola (27 daily; 25min); Rome (1 direct daily; 6hr 35min; 10 daily via Paola or Naples; 5hr–7hr 45min).
Matera to: Bari (Ferrovia Appulo–Lucane; 12 daily; 1hr 30min).
Metaponto to: Bari (3 direct daily; 2–3hr; 10 daily via Táranto; 2hr 20min–3hr 40min); Cosenza (1 direct daily; 2hr 30min; 7 daily via Sibari; 2hr 25min–4hr 50min); Reggio (1 daily; 4hr 40min); Sibari (every 20min; 1hr–1hr 30min); Táranto (every 30min; 40–50min).
Paola to: Naples (every 30min; 2hr 30min–4hr 15min); Reggio (21 daily; 2hr–4hr 30min); Rome (11 daily; 4hr 30min–5hr 30min).
Potenza to: Fóggia (14 daily; 2hr); Metaponto (10 daily; 1hr 30min); Salerno (11 daily; 1hr 40min); Táranto (8 daily; 2hr 15min).
Reggio to: Catanzaro (Mon–Sat every 2hr, Sun 4 daily; 3hr–3hr 20min); Cosenza (8 daily; 2hr 40min); Naples (10 daily; 3hr 20min–8hr); Rome (10 daily; 5hr 10min–8hr).
Tropea to: Rome (1 daily; 7hr 15min); Lamezia Terme (hourly; 1hr); Reggio Calabria (2 daily; 2hr).
Buses
Cosenza to: Catanzaro (Mon–Sat 8 daily; 2hr); Naples (1 daily; 4hr); Rome (2 daily; 6hr).
Matera to: Metaponto (Mon–Sat 4 daily; 50min).
Potenza to: Matera (Mon–Sat 4 daily; 1hr 30min); Naples (Mon–Sat 2 daily; 2hr); Rome (Mon–Sat 2 daily; 4hr 35min).
Reggio to: Florence (2 daily; 12hr); Rome (3 daily; 8hr).
Tropea to: Capo Vaticano (mid-June to mid-Sept 4 daily; 20min).
Ferries and hydrofoils
Reggio to: Aeolian Islands (summer up to 4 daily to each island; winter 1 daily; from 2hr to Lípari to 3hr 30min to Alicudi); Messina (12 daily; 1hr 20min).
Villa San Giovanni to: Messina (every 20min; 40min).