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THE TYRRHENIAN COAST |
  
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| Just as in the past, hospitality in Calabria today is unchanged. The region's value for tourism relies on this too. Its coasts, which over the centuries have been ports of call for many different cultures, are today the pride and joy of a land that can boast sites of exceptional interest for seaside tourism. We start off on the Tyrrhenian, where we immediately find a gem of an island covered with a pattern of caves: the island of Dino. Then we come to San Nicola Arcella, Scalea, Cirella, Diamante, Paola and Amantea. Farther south, half-way between the Bay of Santa Eufemia and the Bay of Gioia Tauro, lie beautiful Pizzo, Vibo and solemn Tropea, a must for international tourists; in 1778 a famous English traveller, Henry Swinburn, described it as "the town which stands in a stupendous position, on the edge of a high rock overlooking the sea...". Then comes Cape Vaticano, the promontory with its fantastic precipices which drop down into the blue in a tangle of fjords, bays, coves and rocks, offering first-rate tourist locations. The varied mountain structure of the Tyrrhenian coast acquires even richer colours in the province of Reggio Calabria, all along the Violet Coast; here we find Palmi, Bagnara and Scilla. Standing up out of the water, the fearless rock of Scilla calls to mind the song of Homer. Behind it lie the houses of Chianalea, the seaside town that symbolizes a human system in symbiosis with its sea. Here at Scilla the mountain looks down onto the sea.
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