Italy: Calabria
Simply magnificent: the landscape near Belvedere with its olive trees, vines and picturesque villages
If the Italian regions were a large family, Calabria would play the role of the stepchild sitting on the cat table away from the adults. With a beautiful, dirty face and torn clothes, it is not allowed to eat next to the cultivated Tuscany and the vain Veneto.
"Calabria? Ten days you want to go there?", We had already asked the Roman steward in the plane surprised. "È un po terzo mondo, no?" That's a bit of a third world down there, right? Everything in the guidebook sounds like a journey of discovery - after much adventure and little comfort. Only every third person has a job on the instep of the Italian boot tip. "O immigrant, o brigante", say the Kalabresen: Either emigrate (since 1970, 3.5 million people left the region) or Mafioso become, these are the perspectives. Those who stay and do not deal with organized crime live off a few orange trees. Or the fishing.
Silent days in the deep south: deck chair on a fishing boat in the port of Bagnara Calabra
In our Fiat, we rock up the steep streets of Bagnara in a northerly direction: through archways, where ivy descend to the street, past Madonna statues, to children who throw us kiss hands. We are obviously the only tourists from abroad who venture so far to the south. 450 meters up the serpentines, before we drive on the A3 motorway. On the median, dark red oleander grows like a wall of flowers. No highway, an avenue is that, a forgotten boulevard in perpetual siesta. 90 percent of Calabria is mountainous, the cliffs often rise to the beaches, but the Italian boot is so narrow here that even the inland areas are never more than 50 kilometers from the water.
The Calabrian Caribbean - that's what the Italians call the coastal strip between Bagnara Calabra and Lamezia Terme. The view from the coastal road is like a look in a travel catalog. Only that the colors are real and the sea is so clean that the Italian environmental organization Lega Ambiente regularly awards top marks in terms of water quality.
Beach of Bagnara Calabra - the Calabrian Caribbean call the Italian coastline
The only place really developed for tourism is called Tropea. It is said to date from the time when the Greeks built temples and theaters for which there was no room on the Peleponnes. Too much, too beautiful, so picturesque that it seems cheesy, at some point we stop taking pictures. It was not until the 1960s that it became fancy to spend a holiday on the coast. Before there was malaria, no hotels, not even real roads. From the Mediterranean to the Calabrian Alps. After four hours driving towards Parco Nazionale della Calabria it gets cold in the car. The mountains are wooded with slender pines, no car comes to meet us. Red and white signs on the tree trunks warn poachers. Villagio Mancuso is a settlement of black and white half-timbered houses, all covered with a thick layer of pine needles. Also our "fairy park", the hotel "Parco delle Fate". A 200-bed house from the 1930s, with dark wood paneling and thick carpets. "The director Luchino Visconti, Sophia Loren, the barons of Sicily and Pope Pius XII were regularly our guests," says the waiter Frederico and puts a candle holder on the table - the only light in the dining room. Noticing that he does not like to sleep in the gloomy hotel, Frederico goes home by car after the meal. Restless we roll in the beds at night.
From the mountain village of Civita we have been sweating a concrete path for half an hour, then descended a gravel field. And now we are standing in awe with respect. "One of Europe's most beautiful gorges," the guide had promised. Giuglio, the Roman ecology owner, whom we met with his girlfriend on the descent into the Raganello Gorge, puts it in a nutshell: Paradiso. Clear drinking water, where we see trout and light gray pebbles. The cliffs rise orange, ocher yellow and slate gray, overgrown with oleander. On the right falls a waterfall, a spray in which Giuglio stands with outstretched arms. Or is it the Nymph Grotto 80 kilometers further north? The Greeks inhabited the area around Sibari 2800 years ago. At first, they lacked everything they knew from their homeland beyond the sea: pleasure, luxury, relaxation. And so the inhabitants of the commercial city built their own beauty salon in the barren, wild landscape of Calabria: the "Grotta delle Ninfe".
"What could one earn here for money!" Says Walter Olivati, 43, businessman from Milan. Like a statue that has come to life, he stands next to us at the mirror. "Calabria lacks the infrastructure.The landscape? Fantastic. The nature? Unaffected. The food? Excellent even by Milan standards. "Olivati looks serious from his green-gray mask." But otherwise everything is missing. "A resort would have to build here, better roads, maybe another airport, muses Signor Olivati, raise prices and earn real money Is it the evening sun, the relaxing mud or the second beer he drinks with us at the edge of the sulfur spring? In any case, Walter Olivati's entrepreneurial spirit is suddenly mild: "Or we leave everything as it is. "Signore Olivati winks - and takes a break from art." And do not tell anyone that there is this place. "
Travel Info Calabria
GETTING THERE Alitalia flies, for example, from Frankfurt to Lamezia Terme from 255 euros. Charter flights from Aero Lloyd, LTU and Thomas Cook (Condor) from all major German airports to Lamezia Terme from 269 euros.
HOTELS Grand Hotel San Michele: the most elegant hotel in Calabria - a splendid mansion on the west coast (8? 9 loc Bosco, Cetraro, tel. 09 82/910 12, fax 914 30,).
Hotel Murat: simple hotel in the old town of Pizzo, framed by bars and ice cream parlors. Ten minutes walk to the sandy beach; (Piazza Repubblica 41, Pizzo, Tel. 09 63/53 42 01, Fax 53 44 69).
Le Roccette San Leonardo: Holiday complex not far from the old town built on the rocks of Tropea, and one of the best beaches in southern Italy. Small bungalows in a park; Apartments for four persons (Via Mare Piccolo, Tropea, Tel. 09 63/618 69, Fax 612 13).
RESTAURANTS AND BARS Da Cecè: the best pasta restaurant of Tropea. Tables on the piazza, especially good spaghetti with red onions or fried zucchini flowers (Largo Toraldo Grimaldi, Tropea, Tel. 09 63/60 32 19).
A casa janca: Rita Callipo cooks four-, five- or six-course menus, rustic specialties, some of the vegetables themselves. Also room for 80 euros including half board (Riviera Prangi, Pizzo, Tel. 096 32/643 64).
La Locanda di Zio Rocco: simple street restaurant with white plastic tables, but the food (pasta from 4 euros) is excellent and almost always with large quantities of fresh hot peppers prepared (Largo San Biagio, Diamante, Tel. 03 68/749 84 98).
Bar Dante: Here, the chocolate ice cream specialty "Tartufo" has been invented, per serving 4 euros (Piazza della Repubblica 38, Pizzo, Tel. 09 63/53 41 50).
INFO Italian Tourist Office Enit, Kaiserstraße 65, 60329 Frankfurt, Tel. 069/23 74 34, Fax 23 28 94. On the Internet at www.enit.it.
