​​​ Lost Paradises Travels - Europe  

​ITALY - Calabria - Tropea - Scilla -

Vibo Valentia - Gerace - Crotone

Calabria is a region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west.  Thanks to its strategic position in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, the region became the center of Magna Grecia (Greater Greece), with the foundation along its coasts of many Greek city-states that remained for centuries among the richest and most culturally advanced of their time. ​Calabria is a region bathed in sunshine. It features steep mountains, typical old villages, museums, archaeological sites and a spectacular coastline, with many popular beaches.  Vibo Valentia was originally the Greek colony, then a part of Roman Empire but almost completely abandoned after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In 1070 the Normans built a castle at the site of the old Acropolis and in 1235 a new city was established by Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor and king of Sicily.