Rent a Car

 

• This is our first advice for people traveling to Calabria. The only way to experience a full Calabrian vacation is by renting a car. If you can’t rent a car, then plan to hire a private car and driver. Not doing so, would certainly turn your vacation into a nightmare, due to the mountainous nature of the region but also, and we would say mainly, because of the region’s very poor public transportation system, as well as for reasons which it would take too long to explain.Calabria’s best places are oftentimes reachable only by car.

 

Calabria is different

 

• You will see an old Italy, with shops closing at lunch and old men and women sitting in the squares talking about politics, sports, family and the likes. Welcome to the most genuine Italy!

 

Be Prepared to hear only Italian and Calabrian dialects

 

• The great majority of Calabrians simply don’t know English. Be prepared to learn some Italian or, even better hire a local guide, because your little Italian would not be of great help, especially in the presence of people speaking local dialects which might sound like Greek to your ears... and this has never been so true, particularly when referring to Calabria.

 

Calabria, is it safe?

 

• Oftentimes, our clients ask us about safety concerns when planning their trip to Calabria. Well, let us put things straight once and for all! The organized crime problem affecting Calabria, believe it or not, does not have the least impact on tourists and Calabria is way safer than many other parts of Italy where minor crimes are more common, especially in metropolitan areas. Having said that, bad things, God forbid, could occur in any part of the world, in New York as in Rome, in Reggio Calabria as in Naples, just adopt the regular safety measures you would adopt when traveling to any oher place of the world, and be prepared to face with the greatest risk you might face when traveling to Calabria, wanting to stay! Enjoy calabria!

 

Travel Tips

 

• In Calabria, you will probably get a better glimpse of the genuine Italian life, forget the Dolce Vita and all that stuff!In the more touristy parts of Italy, they are accustomed to catering to tourists and maybe this did not allow you to see the real Italian customs and traditions. Take Calabria as-is, and you’ll be just fine.

 

Plan Your Trip

 

• This is particularly true when visiting Calabria, knowing Calabria and understanding what you want to see before you get there, it is the most important thing you can do in your trip planning.

 

When To Travel

 

• Calabria enjoys a relatively mild weather 365 days a year, and this is particularly true in the coastal areas, yet, best months to book would be from April to June and from September to mid November, avoid July and August where temperatures on some days could reach 40` celsius temperatures if you cannot stand oppressive heat!

 

Did you know?

 

• The Ancient Greek town which stood here, Rhegion, was an important part of Magna Graecia, the Greek colonisation of Italy. The site has had obvious strategic importance over the centuries due to its proximity to Sicily and the shipping route through the Strait of Messina

 

Scilla

 

• One of the best short trips from Reggio di Calabria is Scilla, a very attractive fishing village with a castle and a beach just 23 km North of Reggio Calabria

 

Bronzi di Riace

 

• i Bronzi di Riace (Italian for "Riace bronzes") are two famous full-size Greek bronzes of nude bearded warriors, cast about 460–450 B.C.

 

Did you know?

 

• The Riace bronzes, also called Riace Warriors, are major additions to the surviving examples of ancient Greek sculpture. They belong in fact to a transitional period from archaic Greek sculpture to the early Classic style, disguising their idealized geometry and impossible anatomy (Spivey 2005) under a distracting and alluring "realistic" surface.

 

The Myth

 

• There is no clear testimony in ancient literature to identify the athletes or heroes depicted by the bronzes. It seems that the nudes originally formed part of a votive group in a large sanctuary. It is conjectured that the bronze sculptures represent Tydeus and Amphiaraus respectively, two warriors from the Seven Against Thebes monumental group in the polis of Argos, as Pausanias noted.

 

Did you know?

 

• The Calabrian dialect of Greek, or Greek-Bovesian, is the version of Italian Greek used by the ethnic Griko people in Calabria, as opposed to the Italian Greek dialect spoken in the Grecìa Salentina. Both are remnants of the ancient Greek and Byzantine colonisation of the region. They are frequently lumped together as Italiot Greek (Katoitaliótika) or Grecanic or Griko, but have different developmental histories.

 

Diffusion in the Past

 

• Calabrian Greek was spoken throughout the whole of south Calabria until the 15th to 16th century, when it was gradually replaced by a Romance dialect (Calabrian), even though there are influences of Calabrian Greek on the grammar and in a large part of the latter's vocabulary. During the Angevin Age the Greek dialect was widely spoken in a large area between Seminara, Taurianova, the Mésima's valley and the plateau of Poro. A brief historical analysis illustrates quite readily the progressive disappearance of the Greek dialect in different Calabrian areas from the 16th century onwards.