After living many years in Calabria Southern Italy I have
decided (with a little encouragement from others) to share my experiences of
living here and our travels around Calabria and Italy.
Who are we? Well we’re Clive and Kathryn Bayton an English
couple that are now Italian residents, I originate from the “Black Country”
that at the time of my birth was in the county of Staffordshire in the midlands
of England and Kathryn is from Lancashire in England’s North West. For the
twenty years before moving to Italy we lived in “Gods own county” of Yorkshire
in its East Riding. Already many English speaking people from countries other
than England are probably scratching their heads so I promise whenever I deem
it necessary I will reference an external link.
Kathryn and I made Scalea our permanent home in July 2009
and soon after opened Casa Cielo, Bed and Breakfast. Over the years the
business grew as people from all over the world came to stay with us. The adventurous
came to explore the region that was never fully documented in the “Tourist
Guide to Italy” and remained an enigma. Many (mainly Americans) were
researching their ancestry while others were looking to buy a cheap holiday
home in the sun. We credited our growth in the beginning with the fact that we
spoke English which at the time was a rarity in any Hotel, restaurant, bar,
shop etc. in the area. Thankfully English is the traveller’s language and we
provided a haven of safety in what was still almost unchartered tourist
territory.
In the first year we opened a Facebook business page to
promote the business and show the area and its merits through photographs and
stories of our travel and everyday life in Italy, we were unaware at the time that
this page would became more of a travel reference on Calabria for our followers.
The page has now been renamed “Da Casa Cielo Scalea” (From Casa Cielo Scalea) and
I have started this blog in the hope that people will use it in conjunction
with the Facebook page acting as an extra photo album.
In the past years we have
travelled the west coast of Southern Italy and a little beyond and our journey
has not finished yet. It’s impossible to visit Italy without at some time ending
up in a well-trodden tourist destination, but we do try to find the less
visited places and have over the years received great reward while doing so.
Previuosly we have travelled by car, but now we use public
transport as it is economical, reliable and relaxing, so wherever we visit the
trip usually starts with a train journey from our home town of Scalea.
We hope you enjoy these pages and continue to use it as a
reference to Calabria and Southern Italy, as we do “Calabria dentro e fuori” (Calabria
in and out) and hopefully away from the tourists and madding crowds.
Please note our views on towns and places we mention either
positive or negative are solely our own opinions and experiences, as it was
once said each one of us is entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts.
We also do not recommend restaurants, bars, hotels etc. as again we all have
different tastes, and our only goal is to share the architecture, history,
tradition beauty and at times the downfalls of the places we visit. I tell you
this now as you may be shocked when I by-pass or dislike towns you’ve praised
or always wanted to visit.
A note on the coastal hill towns of Calabria, that is hill
towns no more than ten kilometres inland from the sea. I write about these when
I write about the coastal town they are close to. I will write about inland
hill towns as the blog continues.
At odd intervals the mountain range that runs parallel with
the coast of Calabria shoots off a tentacle of hills and dips its feet in the
blue waters of the Mediterranean separating the plains on which the coastal
resorts and towns are built. These plains can be many kilometres long and at
times ten kilometres or more deep, but wherever you stand on the Calabria’s
coast looking inland there is always a mountain backdrop.
The mountains contain many hill towns, some visible from the
coast, some beyond the mountains and maybe the odd one hiding behind the hills
in front of you. These towns have been built for many different reasons, maybe
on a pass through the mountains as a strategic point or toll road, others built
by Albanian refugees fleeing the Turks in the middle ages and many by
inhabitants of the coastal towns who had just got fed up with the constant
attacks on their town by pirates.
It’s difficult to say which of these towns is worth a visit
as I’ve said before we use public transport which is excellent to travel up or
down the coast but to go inland, forget it. Buses do run to these places but
probably no more than three times a day so without local knowledge and the
absence of accurate timetables and marked bus stops it may be better not to go at
all unless you have a car.
I have visited many hill towns down the coast of Calabria
and have found that all have a certain charm but towns without a castle or
medieval walls tend to be just another hill town. You cannot visit them all so
my suggestion on which town to visit starts with the question is there a
castle, the ruins of one, or is the town surrounded by a medieval town wall?
All the hill towns have a similarity so if one has a castle and its neighbour
doesn’t then go for the castle town as it will be older and reveal more history
and ancient architecture than its rival, castle towns can be almost a thousand
years old while the towns without can be just a few hundred. Although I have
visited most of the hill towns down the west coast of Calabria it will be
easier to write only on those I have found of interest and history.
If we can be of help on information on the towns of west Calabria please contact us at
casa-cielo@hotmail.it
or via our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/casa.cielo
External links:
