CALABRIA

La Calabria is the football of the Boot, the southernmost region of the Italian peninsula, stretching towards Sicily, which can be clearly seen from the shore on clear days. Doubly coastal — with over 780 kilometers of coastline divided between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and the Ionian Sea to the east —and deeply mountainous inland, it is a region of extreme contrasts and wild, powerful beauty. It is the land of Crotone, city of Pythagoras and Magna Graecia; of Locri Epizephyrii, a Greek colony of refined culture; of Reggio Calabria with the Riace Bronzes, two Greek warriors from the 5th century BC, among the most extraordinary ancient bronzes ever to emerge from the sea. It is the land of the red onion of Tropea, of the bergamot of Reggio—a precious perfume that flavors the finest teas and the most exclusive fragrances in the world—of the spicy 'nduja of Spilinga, of the wines of Cirò, and of the Albanian-speaking Arbëreshë communities who have spoken an archaic language for five centuries in the inland villages.

Beaches and coasts

The Coast of the Gods, in the Tyrrhenian stretch of the Vibo Valentia province, is unanimously considered among the most beautiful in Italy: Tropea, with its pastel-colored houses clinging to the white tuff cliffs overlooking the sea, and its ancient village overlooking a beach of fine sand and waters ranging from turquoise to cobalt, is one of the most photographed seaside resorts in the Mediterranean. Capo Vaticano offers pink granite coves accessible on foot or by boat, with crystal-clear seabeds and cliffs emerging from the emerald-green sea. Riaci beach, with its white sea stacks rising from the turquoise water, and Pizzo Calabro, with the Aragonese Murat Castle overlooking the sea—and the chocolate truffle and pistachio ice cream that is the town's signature dessert—complete a Tyrrhenian coastline of rare beauty. The Ionian coast, wilder and less crowded, offers the warm, clear waters of Soverato, and the Capo Rizzuto Marine Park—Italy's largest marine protected area—with seabeds of extraordinary biological richness, and the Aragonese Fortress of Le Castella, which juts out into the sea like a stone ship.

Landscapes

The Sila National Park - the large granite plateau that extends in the center of the region between 1.000 and 1.900 meters above sea level, covered with forests of Corsican pine, silver fir and beech - is the "Little Tibet" of Italy for its vastness, silence and light: the artificial lakes of Arvo, Ampollino and Cecita reflect the coniferous forests like mirrors between the mountains, the Apennine wolf moves undisturbed among the woods, and the Sila villages such as Camigliatello and Lorica retain an alpine atmosphere unusual for the South. The Aspromonte National Park, in the extreme tip of Calabria, is a granite massif with a harsh and powerful charm: the Montalto at 1.955 meters, the Fiumare with gravel beds furrowed by crystalline waters in winter and almost dry in summer, the wild gorges and the rock villages such as Pentedattilo - the "five fingers" of rock that They emerge from the Reggio Calabria plain around a nearly deserted village of extraordinary beauty—and Bova, the last stronghold of the Greek language in Italy. The historic villages of the hinterland complete a portrait of rare historical depth: Gerace with its Norman cathedral, one of the largest in Southern Italy; Stilo with the Cattolica—a jewel of 10th-century Byzantine architecture that stands on a cliff like a small temple suspended between heaven and earth; and Civita with the Raganello Canyon, a profoundly deep gorge where the stream flows between vertical walls hundreds of meters high, and where the Arbëreshë community still preserves the Albanian language and traditions.