Remote and rugged, Calabria forms the 'toe' of the Italian peninsula. A world away from the Baroque churches, lavish art galleries and gently rolling hills of 'traditional' Italy, the region offers a very different experience. Undiscovered by tourists until relatively recently, Calabria has successfully retained a real sense of 'southern' authenticity and over the years has made little concession to modernity. Wandering through its towns and villages is like stepping back in time - you are just as likely to meet a flock of sheep in village alleyways as you are a Fiat Cinquecento. Whilst sparsely populated and slightly impoverished, Calabria is, however, rich in natural beauty, idyllic beaches and fascinating historical sights that simply demand investigation. Immortalised in the 19th-century drawings of Edward Lear, Calabria boasts an almost savage-looking landscape - the jagged Aspromonte and Sila mountain ranges give way to deep caves and dramatic valleys cloaked in woods and pines of deep forest green. Calabria's vast seaboard, meanwhile, plays host to a collage of tranquil sandy bays and hideaway grottoes.
