The toe of the boot — Tropea's cliffside beaches, spicy 'nduja, Greek ruins, and an Italy most tourists never reach.
Explore → Get Early AccessSea-warm, crowd-light
Two coasts and the Sila in between
Trains hug the coasts; the interior needs wheels
Spicy spreadable salume from Spilinga
Calabria is Italy before the crowds: Tropea's cliff-top old town above white sand, spicy 'nduja worth the flight, and mountain villages where lunch lasts all afternoon. The toe of the boot is the deal of the country.
Greek colonists made this Magna Graecia's heartland — Pythagoras taught in Crotone — and the Riace Bronzes, pulled from these waters in 1972, are among the finest Greek statues on earth. Byzantines, Normans, and Aragonese all followed.
Tropea's red onions are so prized they carry protected status and get made into ice cream — genuinely good ice cream. And Calabria's bergamot, the citrus in Earl Grey tea, grows commercially almost nowhere else on the planet.
The heel — trulli villages, baroque Lecce, burrata at the source, and a coastline of white…
Balsamic aged in attics, Ferrari born down the road, and a Romanesque Duomo that made UNESCO's…
The Renaissance planned city — a moated castle downtown, palaces of diamonds, and more bicycles than…
Italy's green heart — Assisi's basilica, hill towns without the Tuscan crowds, truffles, and slow perfect…
The food valley — Parma's ham, Modena's balsamic, Bologna's kitchens, and Italy's fastest cars in between.
Two cities in one — the funicular to the walled Città Alta, Venetian ramparts, and polenta…
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