Calabria is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples. The region actually forms the southwestern tip on the front of the Boot of Italy. It is bordered to the north by the Basilicata region, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and to the east by the Ionian Sea.
What should you see in Calabria? These are the eight most beautiful places in Calabria.
The most popular (and therefore most touristy) place in Calabria is Tropea. This is mainly due to the perfect location of this city. Tropea is located on a rock by the sea, between the cliffs. The view from the cliffs is amazing and the sea water is clear and blue. You can enjoy the view here all day long, but snorkeling is also recommended!
Scilla is a fishing village where they mainly focus on swordfish fishing. The most beautiful part of this town is the old part: Chianalea di Scilla. This is the real fishing village. The fishermen’s houses are all on (or in) the sea, so that they can easily get on the water with the boat. The village is also called Little Venice because of the many narrow canals here that separate the houses.
Capo Vaticano is a cape on the Tyrrhenian Sea where you can find the most beautiful beaches. Everywhere you have beautiful views of the cliffs and the sea. The largest sandy beach in this area is Spiaggia di Tonno. The area around Capo Vaticano is also a good destination if you do not want to encounter many other tourists.
The city of Reggio Calabria was once the capital of Calabria. It is a historic city with lots of beautiful architecture and museums. The two most famous attractions in this city are the Cathedral and the Aragonese Castle. You can also enjoy a nice walk along the pleasant boulevard or go shopping here. And the Calabria region has an airport, so it is also a good starting point for your trip through Calabria.
Gerace is a medieval village in the province of Reggio Calabria (not to be confused with the city of the same name). It is built against a mountainside, so you really feel like you are going back in time. You can get lost in the small alleys here and there are many historic buildings to visit. You should definitely not miss the Cathedral!
Calabria is mainly known for the most beautiful beaches, but inland you can also find beautiful, rugged nature. Such as in the Sila National Park, in the Sila Mountains. If you like walking, this is the place for you. You can go for a tough hike through the mountains or for a relaxing walk through the relatively flat area along the lakes. With a bit of luck you can also spot wolves here!
Diamante is located on a bay and here too you can find beautiful beaches. The boulevard is full of cozy terraces where you can enjoy people watching. The city is also known for its many murals. The best time to come to Diamante is in September when they celebrate the Peperoncino Festival. In other words, a festival that is completely dedicated to the red pepper, with fun parties and, above all, lots of food.
Il Pollino is the largest National Park in Italy and spreads over Calabria and Basilicata. Four rivers flow through this park and you can take a boat trip on the river between the canyons. There are also many hiking trails in the park for all levels. You can also hike to the top of Monte Dolcedorme. On clear days you can even see Sicily from there. More on this park in the section below.
Welcome to Pollino National Park – Landscape of the soul!
Close to activities of great interest such as shooting range, hiking, excursions in the Pollino National Park and rafting along the Lao River, it manages to attract many tourists who love nature and are passionate about river sports every year.
The Pollino National Park, with its 192,565 hectares of extension, is the largest newly established protected area in Italy. Straddling Calabria and Basilicata, the territory of the Park – which includes 56 municipalities – is characterized by several mountain massifs that make up the southern Apennines chain: the Pollino Massif, the Orsomarso mountains and Mount Alpi. Here, among very high peaks, Nature and Man intertwine millenary relationships that the Park, established in 1993, preserves and protects under its emblem: the Loricato Pine.
In 2015 the Park became part of the European and Global Network of Geoparks under the aegis of UNESCO which, in 2017 and 2021 respectively, included the Beech Forest of Cozzo Ferriero and the Beech Forest of Pollinello in the transnational Site of the “Ancient Primordial Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe”, proclaiming them World Heritage Sites.
From the Castello di Valsinni, from the Madonna del Pollino and from the Serra di Crispo to the Monti di Orsomarso to the Valley of the Cedars, the ancient paths lead to a world of natural and cultural values that satisfy man’s desires and spirit with well-being and give him a make you feel better. You walk in the shade of the beech forests of the Bosco Magnano; climb to the timpa of San Lorenzo, to the cozzo del Pellegrino, the greenhouse of Ciavole and the Montea; you will glide over the waters of the Peschiera stream, the gorges of Raganello and Lao and the Abatemarco river; it is sheltered in the Argentino valley.
On the fields of Pollino and Novacco, among the meadows of great heights, the body catches its breath, rids itself of worries, looks at the horizon and restores the mind.
The infinity, the silence, the colors, the clear sky, the bright shine of the stars, in the night, in the dark, without other lights, everything envelops and gives pleasure.
The large park is magical; it is magic through the dolomite rocks, basalts, cliffs, caves, glacial cirques, moraine accumulations, loricate pine, symbol of the park, the pine-beech association, the golden eagle, the wolf, the roe deer and the otter.
The vastness of the area offers a thousand surprises; A thousand different images and views flow into the amazed soul, cadenced by the sounds and rhythms of natural environments.
It is a beautiful encounter between nature and man, a repetition of crops after crops, cultures after cultures, a succession of seasons and grafts, of migrations and yields, of hybridizations and contaminants to increase and enrich the biodiversity that the countries, places, fruits, seeds, grains, settlements have opened up and are becoming, diverse, but all anchored to the naturalness and identity and roots of the Park. It is history with paleontological finds, graffiti, remains from the past; with the remains of material culture, ethnic groups, linguistic islands belonging to minorities of Italo-Albanian origin; with the fumes from the chimneys of old country houses and small villages; with plants, orchids and wild peonies and wild flowers; with the places inhabited by man; With grazing herds and rural life, elsewhere increasingly oppressed and almost disappeared, pushed aside by modernity.
Air, water, earth, light, smells, tastes, sounds form a free and pure nature, where fear is extinguished.
The landscape has hardly changed for centuries; the cultivated fields still measure the fatigue of the inhabitants, farmers, shepherds and craftsmen; The spaces of everyday life are still shaped by ancient customs.
The countryside is dressed in new colors of the different seasons; the peace from the noise; refreshment in the cool breath of the wind that envelops mountains and valleys; Quench your thirst at springs of clear water with the taste of the rocks from which they flow and of nature that generated them.
The agricultural landscape is characterized by the spontaneous architecture of the old farm houses created to shelter from the cold winters and bleak summers, to welcome the children and their children’s children in a patient succession of generations who wait with trepidation to enjoy each season of the fruits and the suggestions of individual climates. It emerges with the natural sculptures of oak trees challenging the sky, with the pear, the almond, the olive tree and, now, the many brambles, hedges, many brooms. It stands out in the sign of stone: the stone of the houses, of the dry stone walls of the country roads, of the boundaries of the plots.
In this world we live the memories of families with their group photos, in black and white, with the ceremonies of their weddings, with the rediscovered places of childhood, with the solemn moments of the processions, with the popular dances and the rhythms of bagpipes , with the costumes of the past; With sleepless nights at the bivouac waiting for the next day’s religious rites in the cemetery of the churches in the mountains or in the forest for the annual celebrations of the tree cults. Here everyone can feel a little like ‘children of this nature’, protected by its enormous and precious sample of endemics and biodiversity, between naturalness, rurality and typicality, between originality and authenticity.
It is the territory of the testimonies of ancient Lucania that connected with the isthmus road to the Tyrrhenian coast, from Cirella, to the archaeological remains of Sybaris on the Ionian Sea; an area where the railway line from Castrovillari to Laino and Castelluccio crossed through the “littorina” until a few decades ago announced the arrival in the districts of the Pollino of the civilization of machines.
Today, the old stations, the stone bridges and tunnels and the Calabrian-Lucanian railway line, completely disused after its abandonment and dismantling, show the charm built up over the decades, also of a unique and adventurous technological reinterpretation of the past. Here, the Pollino National Park preserves nature and people, ecologies and traditional local cultures.
Here the bond between land and human activities remains deep and unbreakable and the park preserves and protects it.
There are a lot of activities you can do within distance of the B&B.
The Lao River is not the same everywhere, each stretch has its own special feature where you can do different activities. In the first part you can do river walking and combine this with rafting, further on you can do rafting, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, pack rafting, tubing.
Do you like quad biking, mountain biking, cycling or other sports? This is all possible in this beautiful environment.
Take a diving course in Praia a Mare at Seahorse Diving Center.
With the children you can go to the archaeological park to look for prehistoric stones and dinosaur teeth or to the Lao adventure park/climbing park in Orsomaro with Tyrolean bridges, Tibetan bridges, cable cars and tree ladders.
You can visit caves and antiquities.
And don’t forget the beautiful blue sea where you can swim, snorkel, dive, pedal boat, canoe and more.
FALCONERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
GUIDED GUIDED TOUR OF THE CENTER
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES
Naturalistic / Educational / Interactive.
Modern falconry
Art UNESCO World Heritage
Book via Vicky’s B&B by V and get a 5% discount!!!
Such as Rafting; Paintball; Quad and much more.
Here you will find all events in the area that you could attend.