CALABRIA (Italy)

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Provinces: Reggio Calabria, Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Vibo Valentia

The extreme south-western region of Italy, washed by the Tyrrhenian and the lonian Sea. It is an essentially mountainous region, with a high central Apennine ridge, which crosses it lengthwise. The mountain slopes are overgrown with thick woods.

Calabria is a place for two types of people: Calabrians (and their descendants - sometimes) and adventurers. It is bewildering, even frightening to all others, but richly rewarding for the chosen few. You will find no Florences or Venices in Calabria. You won't even find a San Gimignano or a Positano. Art treasures are usually encountered in impoverished villages whose older homes barely have electricity and running water and newer homes have cement pylons where the second storey will someday be. When there's a spectacular seacoast, you're likely to find hotels offering lumpy mattresses and microscopic see-through towels. Architectural masterpieces have been eroded by the earthquakes that recur every hundred years or so. What you will find are incredible vistas across rugged mountains, vast golden wheatfields and crystal clear seas. Ageold olive trees that grow as tall as eucalyptus. Ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Norman ruins, forgotten by time, which suddenly loom over the horizon, beckoning you to your own private rendezvous with history. Shy but unforgettably hospitable villagers wearing voluminous black skirts or colorful traditional costumes. Delicious fish, vegetables, cheese, sausage, salami, wild mushrooms and figs.