Best of Calabria is an independent travel guide created by a team of travel enthusiasts who fell in love with Calabria – one of Italy's most underrated and overlooked regions. Our mission is to showcase the real, authentic Calabria – far beyond the tourist clichés and superficial guidebook entries.
Calabria is a region that defies simple descriptions. Crystal-clear seas, the rugged peaks of Aspromonte and Sila, Greek-speaking villages hidden in the mountains, a culinary tradition spanning millennia – it all awaits discovery. Yet most travel guides devote barely a few pages to Calabria, focusing on Tropea and ignoring everything else. We take a different approach.
Calabria lies at the tip of the Apennine Peninsula in southern Italy and has a population of around 1.85 million. The region is bordered by two seas – the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and the Ionian Sea to the east – and its administrative capital is Catanzaro, while the largest city is Reggio Calabria. The region comprises five provinces: Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio Calabria and Vibo Valentia.
It is precisely this diversity that makes Calabria hard to capture in a single image. Alongside well-known stretches of coastline such as Costa degli Dei, Riviera dei Cedri and Riviera dei Gelsomini, the region also includes the mountainous areas of Aspromonte, the Sila plateau and Pollino National Park. In practice, this means a region where you can be at the seaside one day and set off on a mountain trail the next.
In southern Calabria, particularly in the Bovesia area of the province of Reggio Calabria, several villages are linked to Greek-Calabrian culture, including Bova, Gallicianò, Roghudi and Pentedattilo. The local language known as grecanico, a variety of Greco-Calabrian, survives there as a trace of centuries of Byzantine and Greek presence. Bova belongs to the “I Borghi più belli d’Italia” network, and Gallicianò is considered one of the most important places for keeping the Greek tradition alive in Calabria.
The region’s cuisine also has very specific addresses and flavours. ’Nduja originates from Spilinga, bergamot is the symbol of the Ionian coast in the province of Reggio Calabria, cedar is particularly associated with the area around Santa Maria del Cedro, and the Tropea Calabria red onion holds PGI/IGP designation. Other characteristic products and dishes include liquorice from the Rossano area, fileja, morzello, sardella, pipi e patate and stoccafisso alla mammolese.
Every article on Best of Calabria is based on first-hand experience and thorough research. We cover not only the popular destinations but, more importantly, the places where locals themselves go – hidden beaches, mountain trails, local festivals, and family-run trattorias where the menu changes daily depending on what the fisherman brings in or what ripens in the garden.
We are fully independent – our content is not sponsored and not written on behalf of hotels or tour operators. We only recommend places we have personally visited and genuinely believe are worth seeing. Whether you are planning a trip to Calabria or simply want to learn more about this fascinating region, we invite you to explore it with us.
If you are just starting to plan your trip, first choose the part of the region and the most convenient airport: Lamezia Terme (SUF), Reggio Calabria (REG) or Crotone (CRV). For Costa degli Dei, the most practical base is the area around Tropea and Parghelia; for Aspromonte – Reggio Calabria or the Gambarie area; and for Sila – Camigliatello Silano or Lorica. The bathing season typically runs from June to September, while trekking and relaxed sightseeing are best in April to June and September to October.