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I Love Touring Italy - Southern
Calabria
If you are looking for a European tourist destination, consider the
Calabria region of southern Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian
Sea. Calabria is the toe of the Italian boot. There are excellent tourist
attractions, and you won't have to fight crowds, but you may have to fight
hot, hot summers. With a little luck you'll avoid tourist traps, and come
back home with the feeling that you have truly visited Italy. This article
examines tourist attractions in southern Calabria. Be sure to read our
companion article on northern Calabria.
We begin our tour of southern Calabria at Pizzo on the western Tyrrhenian
coast. We proceed south and west along the coast to Tropea. Then we
continue mostly south along the coast to the capital, Reggio di Calabria.
We leave the coast to visit the Aspromonte mountains and then continue
east and north to Locri on the eastern Ionian coast. We head inland to
Gerace and then go and west along the coast before finishing our tour a
bit inland at Stilo. As always in this part of the world directions are
approximate; you have to go where the roads go.
Pizzo, population about eight thousand, is a seaport and resort situated
on a steep cliff overlooking the Gulf of Santa Eufemia. Its main
attractions are the Baroque Church of San Giorgio (St. George's Church)
and the Castle in which the French general Murat, an ex-king of Naples,
was killed in 1815 after attempting to rouse the populace against the
Bourbon kings.
Tropea, population about seven thousand, is one of the most beautiful
seaside towns in Calabria. It lies between the gulfs of Sant' Eufemia and
Gioa overlooking the sea. And yet it is still relatively undiscovered.
You'll love its untamed white sandy beaches, old houses, and ancient
churches. Its Norman Cathedral has a special feature, unexploded U.S.
bombs from the Second World War, each bearing a note of thanks to the
Madonna. Near the main square is the medieval Santa Maria della Isola
church and monastery, remodeled in Gothic style and touched up a bit after
an earthquake slightly over one hundred years ago. If you fall in love
with the town you may want to sign up for some Italian language classes.
And don't forget the onions, the local onions are so good that Italians
call red onions Cipolla di Tropea (Tropea Onion).
The city's most famous citizen, Umberto Anastasio, was born in 1902 but
left for New York City about 1919. There he lived under the name Alberto
Anastasia, a leader of Murder, Incorporated. He died in a hotel barbershop
in a hail of bullets. Anastasia's fictionalized story was a part of the
Oscar winning movie On The Waterfront.
Reggio di Calabria, population about two hundred thousand, is the oldest
and largest city in Calabria. It sits at the base of a long mountain range
running through the center of the region. Over the centuries the area has
been subjected to multiple several earthquakes and tsunamis. Furthermore,
the soil is difficult to work. The city was founded by Greek settlers in
the Eighth Century B. C. and passed from one hand to another over the
centuries. Interestingly enough it was home to the first dated Hebrew
book, printed in 1475. The worst earthquakes were in 1783 and then in 1908
when an estimated 80% of its buildings collapsed and thousands of people
were killed. It took a full generation for the city to recover.
Reggio di Calabria contains many interesting sights. We will start with
arguably the most unexpected one, the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia
(The National Museum of Greater Greece), a very important archaeological
museum. Make sure to see the two Bronzi di Riace (Riace Bronze) statues of
bearded warriors whose origin is subject to debate among the experts.
While they were discovered by an amateur scuba diver in 1972, they didn't
go on display for almost ten years.
The famous poet Gabriele D'Annunzio called the Falcomata promenade by the
sea the most beautiful kilometer in Italy, and, believe me, it has a lot
of competition. The old city is proud of its Greek walls; the section near
the promenade dates back to the Fourth Century B.C. There are also Roman
baths. Other sights include the church of Saint Gaetano Catanoso, named
for the first saint from Calabria in five hundred years, and the
Byzantine-Norman Chiesa degli Ottimati (Church of the Optimates) initially
destroyed by the Saracens towards the end of the Sixteenth Century. Make
sure to see the Venetian-style Villa Zerbi and the Pinoteco Comunale (Town
Art Gallery).
The mile-high (actually more, about two kilometer-high) Aspromonte
mountain range provides a real change of pace from the Calabria seacoasts.
What a view. The name means "sour mountains." As you may well imagine its
steep terrain and rocky soil are difficult to cultivate. You can find a
ski resort at Gambarie east of Reggio di Calabria and an absolutely
spectacular sanctuary Madonna di Polsi with an annual fair in late August
and early September. Would you believe that some locals still speak a
Greek dialect? Perhaps not surprisingly the local grape is Greco.
Accompanied by some three thousand volunteers the hero of the struggle for
Italian unification, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was defeated and captured in 1862
in the Battle of Aspromonte. But he had the last laugh a few years later.
Locri, population thirteen thousand, was founded about twenty-seven
hundred years ago by a Greek tribe. Its famous lawmaker was the first to
devise the written Greek code of law. He suggested that whoever proposed
changing a law should do so with a noose about his or her neck, and be
hanged if the amendment failed to pass. Talk about a sense of justice. The
original city was abandoned in the Fifth Century and later destroyed. You
can see some of the city walls and ruins of a Greek theater.
Gerace, population three thousand, sits on a hill composed of
sixty-million-year old fossils from the sea. The site has probably been
populated for about ten thousand years. Believe it or not, this little
town once contained more than one hundred twenty churches. Among those
remaining churches are the Norman Cathedral, the largest church in
Calabria includes the Eleventh Century Prison of the Five Martyrs of
Gerace, the Thirteenth Century Church of St. Francis with a beautiful
Baroque altar, and the Tenth Century San Giovannello (Little St. John).
You'll enjoy Gerace's medieval town and the remains of an old castle,
probably dating from the Tenth Century.
Stilo, population three thousand, was founded by the Greeks. In 1940 the
area was the site of the Battle of Calabria, also called the Battle of
Punta Stilo, one of the biggest naval encounters of World War II. The
Italian navy and the combined forces of the British and Australian navies
both claimed victory but the battle was considered to be a draw.
This town's most impressive sight is the Ninth Century Byzantine Cattolica
di Stilo which is really beautiful inside and out. Other churches include
the Cathedral, the Church of San Domenico, and the Church of San Nicola da
Tolentino. And don't forget to see the Norman Castle and the Fountain of
the Dolphins.
What about food? There's lots of it in Calabria. Reggio di Calabria 's
best gelateria, Tonino in the Corso, makes a red onion ice cream (as well
as others based on squid ink and nduja, the local spicy salami). Let's
suggest a sample menu, one of many. Start with Spaghetti al Ragu di Totano
(Spaghetti with Squid and Tomato Sauce). Then try Cinghiale all'aspromonte
(Wild boar Aspromonte style). For dessert indulge yourself with Passulate
(Spicy Nut and Sultana Biscuits.) Be sure to increase your dining pleasure
by including local wines with your meal.
We'll conclude with a quick look at Calabria wine. Calabria devotes about
sixty thousand acres to grapevines; it ranks 13th among the 20 Italian
regions for the acreage devoted to wine grapes. About 91% of its wine is
red or rosé, leaving 9% for white. The region produces twelve DOC wines.
DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which may be
translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin, presumably a high-quality
wine. Only 2.4% of Calabria wine carries the DOC designation.
Most Calabria wine comes from the northern part of the region. If you can
find it, you should try the sweet Greco di Bianco DOC wine grown from a
southern Calabria version of the Greco grape, and the similar non-DOC
Greco di Gerace.
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Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the
Internet, but he prefers drinking fine Italian or other wine, accompanied
by the right foods and people. He knows about dieting but now eats and
drinks what he wants, in moderation. He teaches classes in computers at an
Ontario French-language community college. Visit his Italian travel
website http://www.travelitalytravel.com which focuses on local wine and
food.Source:
http://packyoursuitcase.co.uk
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