Uncover the Nature Culture and Flavours of the Calabrian Riviera

Uncover the Nature Culture and Flavours of the Calabrian Riviera

Rates

DAY 1 – COSENZA – PAOLA – VERBICARO – SANTA MARIA DEL CEDRO – RIVIERA DEI CEDRI

Arrival in Paola and visit to the Sanctuary of San Francesco da Paola.

Continuation to Verbicaro and visit to a wine company: walk in the vineyards and visit of the company. During the visit, tasting of wines and typical products.

Transfer to Santa Maria del Cedro for a visit to the Cedriere, tasting of typical cedar products at the Cedar Museum.  Demonstration visit to the cedar conservation and first processing laboratory.

ln the evening, accommodation in hotel, dinner and night.

DAY 2 – RIVIERA DEI CEDRI – MAIERÀ – DIAMANTE – RIVIERA DEI CEDRI

Breakfast in hotel.

9:30 am arrival in Maierà and guided tour of the historic center and the Chili Pepper Museum. Spicy aperitif.

11:30 am departure for Diamante.

12.00 pm visit to the River Park and the headquarters of the Chilli Academy.

1:00 pm, spicy pizza, how it is made and tasted. “Pizzaiolo” mini-course  and tasting of spicy pizza of your choice with wine or beer. Meeting with the President of the Chilli Academy and with the President of the ltalian Pizza Maker Movement.

2:00 pm  delivery of the personalized Diploma of Chili Pepper Ambassador.

Afternoon walk in the beautiful Diamante, known as the city of murals. Beaches, fishermen’s houses  and  evocative views  make it a fascinating destination to be discovered. Walking around the center of Diamante is like reading a long history of fantasy, but also of people, events and traditions. You can admire depictions of the boats that return to dry with the nets loaded with fish, the market, without forgetting the fairy tales of childhood like that of Pinocchio. Diamante is part of the ltalian Association of Painted Countries, which is a network between all those realities that, like the town in the province of Cosenza, possess and enhance the artistic heritage on the eternal walls of homes.

ln the evening return to hotel, dinner and night.

DAY 3 – RIVIERA DEI CEDRI – AIETA – SAN NICOLA ARCELLA – RIVIERA DEI CEDRI

Breakfast in hotel.

Visit of Aieta, a wonderful village that is part of the most beautiful villages in ltaly. Aieta fascinates with its mountain landscape full of trails through which you reach Monte Ciagola with its 1462 mt. From Aieta the gaze ranges from the Mediterranean sweetness of the Gulf of Policastro to the rough buttresses of the Apennines, in a beautiful game of contrasts. The red roofs, the breath of the woods and that porch in the odor of Tuscany that cracks the gray stone of the  Renaissance  palace, with the invitation to look out as from a balcony over the sea: this is Aieta, magical village at dusk, when it looks like to a crib.

Continuation to San Nicola Arcella, located in the Gulf of Policastro, is a small town located on the Alto Tirreno Cosentino, along the Riviera dei Cedri. ln recent years it has become a popular and well-known seaside resort with a bay enclosed by a rocky arm  that gives it the shape of a natural harbor.

During the boat trip, we will visit the Dino lsland, the largest of the two Calabrian islands on the Tyrrhenian Sea, we will enter the blue Grotto so named for its  particular waters  and  the Grotta del Leone with its unexpected guardian. We will skirt the pediment of the island, western part of the same.

Moving to the north side of the island we will see numerous coves among which the striking Grotta del Monaco will stand out where you can admire what over time the water has been able to impress in the rock.

The navigation continues towards the coast of San Nicola Arcella so that you can admire the Arcomagno, a popular destination for its  majestic  arch that frames a fairy tale bay, the natural harbor of San Nicola Arcella, Torre Crawford, named in honor of the writer Francis Marion Crawford who chose it during her long stays (possibility to bathe in the summer).

Tasting of typical products.

ln the evening return to hotel, dinner and night.

(As an alternative to San Nicola Arcella, possibility of visiting Maratea)

DAY 4 – RIVIERA DEI CEDRI –  PAPASIDERO – CIVITA – COSENZA

Breakfast at hotel and departure for Papasidero. Visit to the Archaeological Area of the “Romito, the Romito Cave Museum and archaeological excavations. Site dating back to the Upper Paleolithic containing one of the oldest evidence of prehistoric art in ltaly, and one of the most important in Europe. Outside there are some rock engravings, among which the most important is a graffiti depicting two bovids (Bos primigenius), and traces of ancient burials, dating back to 10, 00 years ago.

Continue to Civita and visit the village, one of the most beautiful in Iltaly, located in the heart of the Pollino National Park and the Gole del Raganello Nature Reserve. lmmersed in a unique and varied naturalistic landscape, Civita is one of the oldest Albanian communities (arbëreshë) in ltaly.

From the village going down more than 600 steps you reach the Devil’s ridge, in a rocky landscape of intact beauty: a canyon with the longest gorges in Iltaly and a rocky wall that looks like a theatrical backdrop. The thin and vertiginous bridge, which only the devil – the legend says – could build in such a difficult position, leads to the gorges of the Raganello river.

Continue to the place of origin.

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