In May 2017 Pete and I embarked on our very own roadtrip through Europe. If you haven’t yet been following through my other blog posts, we started in the UK, then flew over to Paris and continued on the road through Portugal and Spain before we drove through Italy and visited Florence and Rome then finally making our way down to Naples to discover Pompeii & Herculaneum. Then it was time to move further down south to uncover the secret gems of South Italy. We ended up staying in 2 different towns; Tropea and Caulonia– both of which is situated within the Italian region of Calabria.
Tropea
A place that I will always treasure in my heart and hope to one day return to is Tropea. Tropea is very much like a seaside resort, so there aren’t many places to visit in town except for the beaches. The sight seeing attractions mainly include the many beautiful beaches, with amazing blue-green sea colours you can see from the shore and the older section of the town that are lined with ancient houses and villas, many of which are old and crumbling. The many pedestrian streets are lined with outdoor cafes, pizzerias and gelaterias.
This place let us truly kick back and completely relax with our entire stay here consisting of spending the entire day at the beach, lounging on the sunbeds and cooling down in the water, ordering lunch and bottles of wine from the bar above overlooking the beach then walking around the old town in the evening in search of authentic pizzerias and gelatos.
My top recommendation for this place is Blanca Beach Bar. An amazing bar overlooking the beach with great beach vibes as they have music playing all day/evening. Also, you can lounge around on the sun beds all day as long as you order a drink or some food.
Caulonia
From Tropea we made our way across the other side of Italy’s boot to Caulonia. The main reason we decided to stop here was to be able to see where Peter’s Nonna and Nonno came from! What an amazing little historic adventure we had. We literally had no idea where his family were living- all Nonna told us was to go to Caulonia and ask the locals around for the Scrivo family. So we did just that! Stopping at a petrol station to refuel, we had been asked by some of the locals where we came from. We told them we were from Australia and were looking for Peter’s family- the Scrivo’s. With recognition shining in their eyes and in much excitement they were on the phone to Peter’s cousins within minutes and we got an address and directions to go see them!
The view of Caulonia region
We met many cousins and were invited in for lunch and dinner- being filled up on beautiful authentic Italian anti-pasto and spaghetti. Then we got our very own personal tour around Caulonia and the old town centre and also got pointed to Nonno’s and Nonna’s old house. (You can see Pete sitting on his Nonno’s front door steps below!)
This town is rich in history and culture and the old town centre looked like it hadn’t changed for decades! We really appreciated this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the real authenticity of Southern Italy.
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