Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Calabria”
It seems as though I just finished celebrating 2 years of My Italian Blog and my third Blogiversary has already crept up on me. On this milestone (Trust me, the use of the word is not an exaggeration, and if you have a blog, you understand completely.), I would like to reflect on the things I have done over the …
Although a ruin, the remains are a beautiful reminder of the great abbey that once was, an institution that nurtured the likes of Gioacchino da Fiore, the famous Italian theologian. The Abbazia di Santa Maria di Corazzo or the Corazzo Abbey lies in Calabria’s Sila Piccola, an atmospheric mountainous plateau in the Province of Catanzaro. My visit was greatly enhanced …
In Italy, you can’t put a shovel to the ground or duck underwater off the coast without running into something old. And I’m not talking about the age of the objects paraded in front of the Antiques Roadshow camera. I mean ancient. Some discoveries, like the Riace Bronzes, are world-shaking. Others would be front-page news most anywhere but Italy. The …
UNPROTECTED FEMALES IN SICILY, CALABRIA, AND ON THE TOP OF MOUNT AETNA Intrepid is the word that comes to mind when characterizing women travelers in remote regions. Take Mrs. and Miss Lowe, two proper British ladies, a mother and daughter team that tramped all over the “continent” in the middle of the 19th-century to both the horror and delight of …
WHAT IS THE BERGAMOT? The bergamot is a wonderfully unique citrus that makes its home in Calabria. It’s quite puzzling, this strange fruit with a bitter, almost musty-smelling pulp and incredibly light, fragrant zest. Equally intriguing, the bergamot’s complex properties lend themselves to a wide variety of uses and products – from perfume to cuisine to pharmaceuticals – positively jaw …
I was looking at the rusty sign banning motorbikes from entering the narrow street that led up through the old quarter of Amantea and wondering whether or not anyone actually heeded its message. The little stylized rider sat comfortably on his motorcycle inside the faded red circle that blended with the equally washed out, dilapidated wall on which it hung. …
FRIENDS OF THE NATIVITY I grew up with a beautiful hand-carved Italian manger scene that was as prominent in our living room as the live fir tree standing across from it. The wooden pieces were quite large and I particularly liked the animals, but I understood they weren’t toys. My sisters and I had a smaller nativity we could set …
THE FALL OF MURAT IN PIZZO “Straight to the heart, but spare the face!” These were the final instructions Joachim Murat gave to his firing squad on October 13th, 1815, according to his wife’s memoirs, although Caroline Bonaparte wasn’t actually in attendance that fateful day in Pizzo as her husband and former King of Naples looked down the barrels of …
LUMINARIES From time to time, the monastery in Serra San Bruno has hosted noteworthy guests. However, the rumor that one of the pilots who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima sought spiritual refuge within its walls is just that. Apparently, the discrepancy can be traced back to a false media report. The American military man who took the habit in …
THE CITY OF LAUNDRY The first thing I noticed about Cosenza was the laundry. It was a beautiful day. Linens, T-shirts, jeans and intimates hung from windows like garland on a tree. This was a living city. “Matrimonial” sheets from king-sized beds (letti matrimoniali), folded lengthwise to fit along the wrought iron balconies, flapped against the antique edifices.