Calabria – the Boot's foot - extends in the area where the Italian peninsula becomes increasingly narrow and suddenly stretches to East. Travellers coming from north enter a region surrounded by the sea and innervated by mountains, to feel they have plunged into a place of reality and myths, expectations and concrete facts mainly witnessed by coasts, which have played a vital role in the region's history. Only a few kilometres after Pollino mountains, Praia a Mare and Scalea beaches appear on the Thyrrhenian Sea. A few kilometres ahead, after Spezzano hills, the Sibari plane extends over the Ionian Sea. Two different, opposing, though close seas compete for the image of Calabrian coasts. However, the fact that no place in this region is more than fifty kilometres away from the coast is what makes this territory extraordinary and unique. No more than thirty kilometres, as an average. The more you go south, the shorter this distance becomes. The Apennines start from the Pollino massif, crosses the Sila plateau, rises on the Reventino and Mancuso mounts, which are a bridge over the Calabrian isthmus, rises again on the Serre massif and ends on the Aspromonte, a big mountain shaped as a goose paw which faces the Etna mount and Aeolian Islands. If these mountains did not exist, one could cross the region in the twinkling of an eye. Its three big plains - Sibari, Lamezia, and Gioia Tauro are a fertile land of citrus plantations, while gentle hills offer an extraordinary oil and chestnuts at higher altitudes. With its 780 kilometres of coasts, Calabria boasts an indisputable supremacy of continued contact with the sea. A large, varied boundary with the low Ionian beaches which stretch from Rocca Imperiale to Sibari Lakes and Punta Alice, in Crotone province, up to Capo Colonna, and more, after the Gulf of Squillace – with Copanello reefs – through Punta Stilo and, after Bruzzano Zeffirio reefs, through Capo Spartivento, the 38th Parallel, up to Reggio Calabria, and heads north the Boot from Scilla to Capo Vaticano, cross the harbour of Gioia Tauro, and the Gulf of Sant’Eufemia along the Riviera dei Cedri and ends at Lido di Tortora. 780 kilometres of changing, overlapping landscapes. This wonderful land recalls Graecia Magna and its civilisations, which culture - developed with the outstanding civil, cultural, and artistic levels reached by its several coastal cities – has always been one of the strongest spiritual suggestions of the European populations. It's not without reason that Calabria and Graecia Magna have always been considered as one single entity from the times of Cicero through Lenormant, from Ancient Rome through a long period of the 1800s. In fact, the region periplus is full of the remains of Sibari, Crimisa, Petelia, Squillace, Caulonia, Locri, Regio, Metauro, Melissa, Ipponio, Terina, Temesa, Clampetia, Sidro, Lao. And much more. The cultured, keen travellers who reached Calabria between 1700 and 1800 found a region speaking through remains and memories which faced both seas and subsequently faced a tough mountain landscape. Talented writers such as Denon and Douglas reached Calabria. This land was a birthplace for Cassiodoro, Gioacchino of Fiore, Barlaam of Seminara (who taught Petrarch Greek), Leonzio Pilato (the first person to translate Iliad and Homer's Odyssey from Greek into Latin), Bernardino Telesio, Tommaso Campanella, Mattia Preti, Umberto Boccioni, Corrado Alvaro, Raf Vallone, Leopoldo Trieste, Aroldo Tieri, Mimmo Rotella, Renato Dulbecco (still living), Gianni Versace. During the Greek era, the Greek landed on Calabrian coasts, stole the Bruzi's land (who were forced to fold toward the inland and northern territories), and mingled with other indigenous populations, giving birth to a mixed race which would become extremely florid during the following centuries. Between the VI and V Century b.C., the Greeks flourishing colonies that earned the name of Graecia Magna (Great Greece), some of which so important as to surpass their mother country. During the Roman era and following the Roman conquest - III Century b.C., these territories were called "Brutium". Excluding some allied cities which did not suffer the Roman authority, most part of the region was not able to recover the prosperity it had enjoyed once. Graecia Magna polis were thus bound to lose their power by creating alliances (in some cases) or undergoing a colonisation process by the Romans. Reggio Calabria – where the Corrector, Governor of Regio III Lucania et Brutii colony - remained the last stronghold for the Greek language and culture. Its harbour linked the region to Rome through the Popilia road. When the Roman Empire fell, Calabria was ravaged during Gothic wars between the Gothic and Byzantine populations. The latter defeated the Lombards. Eventually, the Byzantines aggregated the Bruttii region to their Salento territories, thus creating the Calabrian Dukedom. Subsequently, the Byzantine supremacy through Southern Italy was divided into the following areas: Thema of Langobardia, with Bari as capital city, and Thema of Calabria, with Reggio as capital city. This territory inherited the name "Calabria" which was previously used to indicate the Salento peninsula. During the early Middle Ages, inhabitants were forced toward the inland territory due to pestilences and pirate raids which threatened coastal cities and lasted until the end of the XVIII Century.
Several hill and mountain strongholds were built in the Calabrian inland with towns located in rearward, inaccessible places which allowed to promptly sight enemy boats and bolt access roads. During the IX and X Centuries, Calabria was a border land between the Byzantines and Arabs who had settled in Sicily. These populations contended for the territory for a long time, and the peninsula was subject to raids and fights, depopulated and disheartened, though important Greek monasteries remained as true strongholds of Greek culture. However, the Norman Altavilla family put an end to that long struggle. In 1061, Calabria passed to the Normans. Robert Guiscard, Duke of Calabria, and Roger, Count of Calabria, shared that land. A government was set up by local Greek magnates. The territory expanded to Apulia, which caused the end of Byzantine power. Robert confirmed Reggio as the capital city of the Dukedom of Apulia and Calabria, as well as the Calabrian head city of justice, and appointed himself Duke. Roger became Count of Calabria as a vassal of his brother Robert, with Mileto as the head city. In 1098, Pope Urban the II appointed Roger a papal nuncio, thus turning the Altavilla dynasty into the precursor of future kingdom of Naples – kingdom of Sicily - which would rule Calabria until the unification of Italy. The kingdom of Naples also suffered several dominations: Spanish and Austrian Hapsburg; French Bourbon, and Napoleon's General Gioacchino Murat for a short period, who was executed in Pizzo. Aspromonte hosted a famous battle during the Risorgimento, when Giuseppe Garibaldi was injured. A hollow tree where Garibaldi rested to be healed, as a traditional tale goes, can still be seen at Gambarie, today a ski resort.