Questions for my trip to Calabria
My fiancée and I are spending three nights in San Nicola Arcella, Calabria, driving down from Puglia.
Whenever I mentioned Calabria in Florence, people looked at me like I was crazy, and a Puglian server literally described it as “sauvage.” 😂
Is this just the usual Italian regional rivalry/prejudice against Calabria, or is there something I’m missing?
From everything I’ve researched, Calabria looks like a hidden gem. For context, I thought Tuscany was a little overhyped, hated Milan, loved Turin, thought Venice was great but more of a “see it once” place, and I’ve already done Rome several times. So this trip we wanted to explore southern Italy by car and get a little farther off the standard tourist route.
San Nicola Arcella in particular looks gorgeous—the Arcomagno, Riviera dei Cedri, mountains right behind the coast, etc. We’ve booked a boat trip around Dino Island/Arcomagno, but otherwise we deliberately left the three days pretty open.
Also, I love spicy food, so Calabria seems like it might be my spiritual home.
Any recommendations for things to do, towns to visit, beaches, restaurants, or places that are actually worth driving to from San Nicola Arcella?
And most importantly: what food do we absolutely HAVE to try while we're in Calabria?
‘Nduja is obviously at the top of the list, but I’d love to hear about less famous local dishes, cheeses, salumi, desserts, drinks, etc. Give me the stuff you'd be annoyed at someone for visiting Calabria and not trying.
After Calabria, we're heading north to stay at a winery near Vesuvius in Campania, so this is basically the Calabria portion of our southern Italy road trip.