The toe of Italy, with a mountainous spine — Pollino, Sila and Aspromonte are all national parks — and two very different coasts. Tropea sits on a cliff above one of the best beaches in the Mediterranean, with Stromboli visible offshore on a clear evening; Scilla's fishing quarter of Chianalea is built into the rocks facing Sicily. Reggio Calabria's museum holds the Riace Bronzes, two Greek warriors pulled from the sea in 1972 and among the finest surviving classical sculptures anywhere.
- Tropea and the Costa degli Dei
- Riace Bronzes, Reggio Calabria
- Scilla and Chianalea
- Sila National Park
- Gerace and Stilo
- Capo Vaticano
- Best time to go
- June–September for the coast; May and October for the parks and the hill towns. The sea stays swimmable into early October.
- Getting there
- Lamezia Terme airport is central; Reggio Calabria for the far south. The A2 motorway runs the length of the region.
© OpenFreeMap · OSM · terrain Mapterhorn · boundaries © EuroGeographics (Eurostat GISCO)
Headline places
What italia.it leads with in Calabria.
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Riace Bronzes Two Greek warriors pulled from the sea in 1972, in Reggio's national museum -
Scilla & Chianalea Homer's monster, and a fishing quarter built straight into the rocks -
Gerace A Norman hill town with Calabria's largest cathedral -
Capo Vaticano Granite headlands and white sand coves on the Coast of the Gods -
Sila National Park A high forested plateau of pines and lakes — Calabria's mountain interior
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
Calabria by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
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Art & culture More UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country on earth -
Coast & islands 7,900 km of coastline and around eighty inhabited islands -
Borghi & villages The hill towns that carry I Borghi più belli d'Italia and the Orange Flag -
Nature & national parks 25 national parks, from alpine glaciers to volcanic islands
More of The South
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Abruzzo The wildest Apennines — bears, national parks and a trabocchi coast -
Molise The region Italians joke doesn't exist — mountains, tratturi and Samnite ruins -
Campania Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and the islands of the bay -
Puglia Trulli, baroque Lecce, whitewashed towns and two seas -
Basilicata Matera's cave city, the Lucanian Dolomites and a sliver of Tyrrhenian coast