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A region in southern Italy, Calabria occupies the "toe" of the Italian
peninsula south of Naples. It is bounded in the north by the region of Basilicata, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea.
Calabria faces the island of Sicily across the Strait of Messina. The region covers 15,080 kmē and has a population of 2.05 million.
The region is divided into five provinces: Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio di Calabria, Vibo Valentia, and Catanzaro. Catanzaro has been the regional capital since 1970, but despite this the regional Parliament is hosted in the
former capital of Reggio di Calabria. The switchover to
Catanzaro as capital of Calabria was the cause of riots in 1970.
After several wars with rival Italian tribes, Calabria became thoroughly Romanized, through population by Roman
soldier-colonies. Many Romans, including Cicero, had vacation homes in Vibo Valentia. Calabria was for many years part of the
Roman Empire and after its fall, was devastated during the Gothic War before it came under the rule of a local dux for the Byzantine Empire. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Calabria, which had been the rich breadbasket of
Rome before Egypt was conquered, was the borderland between Byzantine rule and the Arab emirs in Sicily, subject to raids and skirmishes, depopulated and demoralized, with vibrant Greek monasteries providing
fortresses of culture. In the 1060s, Normans under the leadership of Robert Guiscard's brother Roger established a presence in this borderland, organized a government along Byzantine lines that was run by the local Greek
magnates of Calabria. In 1098, Pope Urban II bestowed on Roger the equivalence of
an apostolic legate and the Hauteville clan formed the precursors of the Kingdom of Naples which in one form or another ruled Calabria until the unification of Italy. This kingdom itself came under many rulers: the Hapsburg
dynasties of both Spain and Austria; the
French Bourbon dynasty, and briefly Napoleon's general Joachim Murat, who was executed in the
small town of Pizzo.
Throughout all this, Calabria remained a very rural and exploited region. The Aspromonte, a mountainous region of central
Calabria, was the scene of a famous battle of the Risorgimento (unification
of Italy), in which Garibaldi was wounded. Several of the
important philosophers of the Risorgimento (namely, Bernardino
Telesio from Cosenza, Gioacchino da Fiore from
San Giovanni in
Fiore, Tommaso Campanella from Stilo) came from Calabria, and famous Americans of
Calabrian descent are almost too numerous to name.
Calabria is also the home of a small Griko-speaking community in
Bovesia, the region otherwise known as Grecėa Calabra. There are also many
small towns where Albanian is still the main language.
The seawater around Calabria is very clear, and there is a good level of tourist accommodation. The poet Gabriele d'Annunzio called the seafront at Reggio "The most beautiful kilometer in Italy".
Important tourist sites
- Tropea, on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast, is a beautiful city, with a nice seaside, renowned for
its sweet onions.
- Siderno, on the Ionian Sea
coast, has good hotels.
- Gerace, near Locri, is a beautiful medieval city, with a norman castle, an ancient Cathedral, etc
- Stilo, the home of Tommaso Campanella, with a Norman castle and a beautiful Byzantine
church, the Cattolica
External tourist sites
Universities
- Universitā della Calabria, hosted in Rende.
- Universitā degli Studi Magna Grecia di Catanzaro, hosted in Catanzaro.
- Universitā degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, hosted in
Reggio Calabria.
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