A Quick Tour Of Italy - Northern 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. While you won’t have to fight crowds, you may have to fight hot, hot summers. This article examines northern Calabria. Be sure to read our companion article on southern Calabria.

Diamante is a beautiful fishing village on a protective rock along the Mediterranean Sea. Its climate is sunny and yet mild. It’s quite an artist colony, boasting plenty of narrow streets and alleys. In late summer red-hot chili peppers are hung on the clotheslines to dry. In early September the city holds popular Festival de Peperoncini with dancing in the street, men on stilts, traditional music, and plenty of peperoncini-flavored food.

Cosenza was known as the Athens of Calabria. Its academy was founded almost five hundred years ago. This very picturesque city about seven hundred feet above sea level is home to numerous libraries, museums, and theatres. You’ll love the castle and the old town. The Cathedral was probably built in the mid-Twelfth Century when Calabria was a feudal Norman dukedom and Cosenza was its capital. Destroyed by an earthquake in 1184, it was rebuilt in a multitude of styles. The old town contains many interesting churches. The new city is home to the open-air Museo all’aperto Bilotti with a Dali sculpture of Saint George and the Dragon.

Would you believe that there’s lots of good skiing in southern Italy? The Sila is a vast forested plateau in the Calabrian interior, the largest such formation in all Europe.

Crotone was a major Greek city. The famous philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras founded a school here about twenty five hundred years ago. Be sure to see the Ninth to Eleventh Century neo-classical Cathedral and its ancient icon of the Black Madonna. Then go by foot to the island and its Sixteenth Century Castle of Charles V, home to the archeological Town Museum.

The small town of Cerchiara di Calabria is located on the eastern coast of the Ionian Sea. Its site has been settled since the days of the Ancient Greeks. The town is best known for the Tenth Century Sanctuary of S. Maria delle Armi, which includes a historic pilgrim hospice. The streets are cobblestone, the view is stupendous, and I’m told that the La Locanda di Alia restaurant is out of this world, if you watch the spices.

The Sila mountain range that somewhat resembles the Swiss Alps is famous for its mushrooms, especially porcini and truffles, and Caciocavallo Silano cheese. As good as that sounds, I think I’d like the local wild boar even better. Our companion article I Love Touring Italy – Northern Calabria provides a sample menu and more information on local wines plus an in-depth examination of tourist attractions. Given the region’s high altitude, temperate climate, and poor-quality soil one can hope for excellent wines.