Often called the Switzerland of the South, Calabria covers the mountainous toe of
Italy. Here one finds the most wonderful forests, and the hillsides are
covered with the white leaves of ancient olive trees.
Traveling between the Calabrian mountains, in a great land of wonderful beauty,
you are in a region bounded with two seas of approximately eight hundred kilometers coasts, where for this particular configuration,
incalculable views are present
and where the nature has plot in a magnificent way the lines that talent and
human work must follow, or art efforts can improve.
Calabrian land must not only be limited to approached through cliffs
and beaches but also must be looked from the centuries-old roots, the unpolluted and
superb environment, traditions and ethnics that has been surviveing along the time
because of the generosity of the nature.
Closed in the north with the Pollino and Orsomarso imponent relieves, Calabria has a predominantly territory
mountainous, large green reserves, and lakes with strong splendor inside Sila,
demoted summit to peak into the sea on the Range Coast, very high silver firs
and rushing streams on the Serre, the last window on the Mediterranean
between the Aspromonte summits.
Eternal clashes, legendary stories of shepherds and brigands about inaccessible
paths, a continuous alternate between harmonious relieves and vertical summits,
unlike places "with fancy and queerness", that fascinate and disconcert, as
vegetation and fauna, unexpected and unforeseen, make you think "to be in
Scotland" two steps distant from the Mediterranean marquis. A world to explore,
where nature is confused with ancient civilization shapes, rediscovering
protected centers, churches, monasteries, castles, ancient palaces, traditions,
art and folklore, languages and dialect always different; and then lots of
amusement occasions for lovers of adventure, of ski, of nature, of hiking, of
extreme sport.
The synthesis of a trip that different authors had told with precision and
knowledge: as a trip fellow of the XIX century aristocrat, Norman Douglas,
author of Old Calabria, maybe the best book written about the region,
which narrates the atmosphere of the beginning of 19th century where valleys and
Calabrian mountains are described with love and wonder.
In ancient times, the Greek Pythagoras founded his school at Crotone, while at Locri Zaleucus dictated his laws,
creating the first written code of laws in the Western World. The most
prestigious gymnasiums of the Olympic athletes of the time were at Sibari and it was here that Strabo dictated the example that historians were to follow:
"seventy days were enough to destroy the rich and famous town".
They shared the same roots in Magna Graecia, being founded by Greek
colonists between the 7th and the 6th century B.C., and for a long time they
were in conflict with one another: Croton won the day over Sybaris, but the
succumbed, in the battle of the fair, to Locri Epizephiri. But in the intervals
between the battles, with the inevitable intervention of various divinities,
there were long periods of splendor in the arts and in philosophy.
In 572 B.C. the people of Croton defeated those of Sibari". In the early 1980s a famous
archaeological find became the symbol of Calabria: the Riace Bronzes.
They are the two stupendous Greek statues dredged from the sea and exhibited,
from the early 1980s, in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio
Calabria, one of the most important archaeological museums of all the
Italian Peninsula.
One of the two bronze statues is attributed to Fidia,
the master Greek sculptor of the Vth century and famous for the relieves of the
Parthenon. Since their exposure at the Museo Nazionale hundreds of thousands of
visitors arrived in Calabria to discover the marvelous archaeological and
historical patrimony of this region.
Calabria boasts almost 800 km of coast washed by the waters of the
Tyrrhenian, of the Straits of Messina and then, on the opposite side, by the
Ionian Sea. Castles and watch towers are also characteristic sights along the
Tyrrhenian coast, starting from the one built by Charles V at Amantea, a
fortress town that was later embellished by the Franciscans who left several
traces of their presence, the most outstanding of which is the church of San
Bernardino da Siena (1436). On the Ionic strip there were three city states
and three ancient civilizations: Sibari, Crotone and Locri.
Calabria Tourism.
Eternal clashes, legendary stories of shepherds and brigands about inaccessible
paths, a continuous alternate between harmonious relieves and vertical summits,
unlike places "with fancy and queerness", that fascinate and disconcert, as
vegetation and fauna, unexpected and unforeseen, make you think "to be in
Scotland" two steps distant from the Mediterranean marquis. A world to explore,
where nature is confused with ancient civilization shapes, rediscovering
protected centers, churches, monasteries, castles, ancient palaces, traditions,
art and folklore, languages and dialect always different; and then lots of
amusement occasions for lovers of adventure, of ski, of nature, of hiking, of
extreme sport.
They shared the same roots in Magna Graecia, being founded by Greek
colonists between the 7th and the 6th century B.C., and for a long time they
were in conflict with one another: Croton won the day over Sybaris, but the
succumbed, in the battle of the fair, to Locri Epizephiri. But in the intervals
between the battles, with the inevitable intervention of various divinities,
there were long periods of splendor in the arts and in philosophy.