A 360-degree panorama of untamed, natural beauty surrounds the Castle of Amendolea, whose ruins cling precariously to a narrow, rocky cliff on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula. The high ridge dominates the entire valley and is crowned by the abandoned fortification and village, a ghost town with an incredible view. A visit to Amendolea is a leap back …
Pentedattilo: A Ghost Town in Calabria
Otherworldly screams? Laments from the afterlife? The bloody hand of the devil? The poor town of Pentedattilo on the edge of the Aspromonte Mountains in the southern tip of Calabria has seen it all. Earthquakes and precarious shifting of soil lent the final blow. But this cluster of edifices clinging to a strange rock formation, finally abandoned completely in the …
Palizzi: Yesterday and Today
Before my daytrip to Palizzi, I associated the town with two things: Edward Lear’s wonderful lithograph drawings and red wine – not necessarily in that order.
Three Classic Books on Calabria
CALABRIAN TRAVELOGUES If you do any search of books about Calabria, there are three titles that will invariably come up: Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria (1852) by Edward Lear, By the Ionian Sea: Notes of a Ramble in Southern Italy (1901) by George Gissing and Old Calabria (1915) by Norman Douglas.