Calabria? Where?

Harlan and I spent most of November in southern Italy, in the northern half of the southernmost province, Calabria. 

We landed in Naples and went south as far as Catanzaro.

Our loop after Naples was from Scalea to Cosenza to Catanzaro to Crotone, then back north along the east coast through Trebisacce, turning west again through Matera (off the top of this map):

A couple years ago we spent some time ago in the countryside south of Naples so we figured we had good grounds to expect dramatic rides on switchbacks through hilltop hamlets with light traffic and real espresso along the way, and fabulous food. We got those in spades.

We also had revelations in spades.

The country is much more rugged than we imagined, higher mountains, right out of the coast, dense with deep valleys, gorges, high peaks, and remote forests. It put me in mind of a Big Sur and the Ventana. 

There are even fewer tourists than we expected. When we asked around in Naples for any advice on what to see in Calabria we were directed to beaches on the west coast, but otherwise drew blanks. We found the beach towns were sleepy and the few summer-camp-like places we saw in the mountains were closed up. No souvenir shops. We were asked why we were there, the assumption being that maybe we had family roots locally. The one small group of Americans we crossed paths with were seeking out relatives.

I found it interesting that towns were mostly of concrete and relatively modern construction, that is, there were fewer stone buildings or intact ancient monuments than one might expect to see from millennia of human habitation. A big reason for this is the repeated earthquakes over the years: a sign at the cathedral in Catanzaro, dating from 1120, lists the recorded events damaging the structure: 1509, 1517, 1638, 1744, 1783, and 1832--and then there was WWII bombardment. But the olives and the roads bear witness to centuries human work here.

Calabrian food exceeded our high expectations. It's easy to eat pasta and pizza every day when it's so good and so varied. A surprise was how the salads are spectacularly fresh, the lettuce is sweet, the tomatoes like ripe fruit, a bit of mozzarella like fresh cream. Local dishes were more novel than we expected: spicy peperoncini, 'nduja sausage, chickpeas and fava beans, panzarotta--cousin to the calzone, cheeses galore, acres of pastries, and of course gelato. 

Calabrians captured our hearts with their gentle friendliness, so many of them ready to go out of their way to be helpful. As we went south, not many outside the hotels spoke English but those who do seem to dig the chance to use it.

We spent our first few days in Naples, getting our feet under us, literally, with lots of walking. We liked it better than we expected, finding it more colorful than we recalled from our last visit and more congenial. Harlan noted that parts of it feel so much like an opera stage set that you almost wouldn't be surprised if someone were to appear on a balcony and break into a Puccini aria. Vesuvius and the Mediterranean are more present than I expected any time you get a little bit of elevation for a view.

We fit in a trip to Herculaneum and a walk around that site with a guide.

From Naples we headed about three hours south to Scalea, in the northwest corner of Calabria. This beach town, sleepy in November, has a small old quarter, the original town, on the hill above. 

We had a spacious apartment with sea views and found easy access to a couple of wonderful rides into the mountains on remote roads that occasionally turned to dirt, and alway had long steep stretches up and down.

After four days we drove yet another glorious backroad into the mountains and then picked up the modern freeway, all bridges and tunnels through these mountains, south to Cosenza. This city sits in a fairly close valley with an ungentrified ancient town at the confluence of two rivers and a fair bit of modern sprawl and suburban development. The warren of narrow streets in the old quarter are pretty rough, not all cleaned up for tourists, many no more than 5-foot corridors, with lots of stairs. 

Cosenza has a lively passegiata on a wide shopping street with a collection of modern sculptures as an outdoor museum. There's some serious energy here to bring art and culture to the city. 

Weather moved in so we did one short loop from Cosenza on roads winding through the hamlets of the greater metropolitan area.

After getting to know and like Cosenza for a few days, we moved on southward through even higher mountains on empty wintry roads to Catanzaro, the provincial capital. This little city is absolutely crammed on top of a hill maybe a couple of kilometers long and half a kilometer wide. The island-like sense of place is reinforced by the impressively tall bridges that cross the surrounding gorges and the views out all around across the countryside and out over the Ionian Sea. 

The narrow, stone, one-lane streets are jammed with little cars, so crowded that even as much as we love the Italian roads and drivers, it took us a few days to adjust to the intensity (intimacy?) of traffic here. 

We did three great rides from Catanzaro and saw tantalizing routes to go back for when the upper stretches into the mountains aren't so wet. 

Onward to the port city of Crotone. We are glad we paused there, and had one of our very best rides into rolling countryside from there, but Crotone might be more attractive in warm summer sun.

Finally we headed north along the eastern coast, sniffing out by pure luck a quick picnic lunch spot at Trebisacce right on the water.

Then we turned west for a few days in Matera, in the province of Basilicata. This got us back onto the tourist track in a beautiful little city with a fascinating history. In the 1950s the government evacuated peasants from their cave homes there, as the site had come to be known as "the shame of Italy." Now Matera is sprinting to put finishing touches on its resurgence of the last dozen years as it becomes the 2019 European Cultural Capital. Many of those shameful caves are now trendy restaurants and hotels.

The New York Times just published an article about how Matera is changing, and fast. 

Our one big ride from Matera took us through gorgeous fields fallow from the summer crop of wheat and a big change from the forests and olive groves farther south. Traffic was pretty light on all our rides, but this loop had long stretches with virtually none followed by long stretches with none at all. Even in this rolling countryside we found a mile of steady 13% grade, and hilltop hamlets with their castles--and coffee!

So that's an overview--plenty of pictures and stories to share yet...