Winning tip: Chilli festival, Diamante
Brace your taste buds for Calabria’s chilli festival: five days of food, fun and fiery spice each September in the pretty seaside town of Diamante. The old town and waterfront are thronged with stalls selling chillies in every conceivable incarnation.
peperoncinofestival.org
marthah
Festival of Nduja
The village of Spílinga, south of Tropea, is a great place to be in August, for the Sagra della ’Nduja, celebrating the spicy Calabrian sausage. Street theatre, dance and music climax in a fantastic firework display over an ancient monastery.
gonca
Palio cui Ciucci
The Palio cui Ciucci (donkey palio) is the centrepiece of the Ferragosto celebrations in the village of Laino Borgo, in the north of Calabria. Young men from each district of the town race donkeys around the track and the winning district throws a street party for the rest of the community.
paliucuiciucci.altervista.org
ayshek
Badolato
This walled hilltop village, a few steep, twisting miles inland from Badolato Marina, is a relaxing and friendly place. Local wine and foods are available in shops and markets, and there are Greek and Roman ruins to visit.
Ionian1
Pollino national park
This craggy national park sits at the border of Calabria and Basilicata. There are associations organising trekking tours on these wild mountains, explaining the geological and archaeological secrets.
parcopollino.gov.it
korafri1
Marasusa Holiday villas, Tropea
Tropea is often regarded as Calabria’s jewel, the most picturesque of its towns. I would recommend staying in an apartment at the Marasusa holiday village. It has some of the best views I’ve seen anywhere, especially the sunset behind the volcanic island of Stromboli.
marasusatropea.com, apartments sleeping five from £220 a week
Lynn Greenman
Marinella beach, Palmi
The hairpin route from the village of Palmi down to Marinella beach is as nail-biting as it is panoramic. The beach is a narrow strip of white pebbles which renders the water a hyper-real shade of turquoise, deepening to violet towards the horizon, hence the name Costa Viola.
South-west of town on Via Marinella
ID3208844
Le Cascate
A few kilometres from the coastal resort of Marina di Caulonia lies Le Cascate, a dramatic waterfall set against the backdrop of towering mountains and a wide flood plain. Children enjoy leaping from the waterfall while others cool off in the deep pools.
Kathryn Hay
Ristorante Tropea Vecchia, Tropea
Climb the steep steps to the old town for spectacular views of leaping dolphins from a haunting 11th-century Benedictine monastery, then dine alfresco on delicious fresh swordfish at friendly Tropea Vecchia. Heavenly.
4 Largo Barone, +39 0963 61899
nicoletta
Padula
The tiny village of Padula, north of Cosenza, is the home of Volante, a wine that rarely makes it out of the town limits, let alone the country. Harvested from a strain of the Isabella grape (vitis labrusca) known locally as Scherzo (joke), it is frowned upon by the EU, which insists that all wines be made from grapes from the vitis vinifera family.
Peikko