Landscape
Seen from the sky, Calabria, the extreme tip of the Italian boot, looks like an enormous mountain caressed by the sea. Aspromonte, between Palmi and Capo Zefiro, south from Locri, touches the sea with its spurs, which become sea-depths of evocative colours. In the north it embraces from one side the Piana di Gioia Tauro, with its ample terraces that descend green in olive and orange groves between Cristina and Delianuova, and from the other side it stretches out into the crest of Melia, that grows like a long arm to the borders of Vibo Valentia’s Province. Long and warm beaches mark the coastlines, opening towards Sicily and Mount Etna. The province is rich with contradictions, the colours are both violent and delicate: the purple of the Tyrrhenian sea, the pale blue of the Ionian, the deep green of the moors on the rocky slopes of Scilla and Bagnara and the green of the orange groves, which is everywhere on the plains. Enjoy the perfumes of the sweet jasmine of the Ionic coast and the strong oregano along the cliffs covered in herbs. The Pollino Mountains in the north of the region are rugged and form a natural barrier separating Calabria from the rest of Italy. Parts of the area are heavily wooded, while others are vast, wind-swept plateaus with little vegetation. These mountains are home to a rare Bosnian Pine variety, and are included in the Pollino National Park. La Sila is a vast mountainous plateau, about 1,200 metres above sea level, which stretches for nearly 2,000 square kilometres along the central part of Calabria. The highest point is Botte Donato, which reaches 1,928 metres. The area boasts numerous lakes and dense coniferous forests. The peninsula narrows at the Savuto river valley, which starts in the Sila and extends to the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia. The Aspromonte massif forms the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula bordered by the sea on three sides. This unique mountainous structure reaches its highest point at Montalto Uffugo, at 1,995 metres, and is full of wide, man-made terraces that slope down towards the sea. In general, most of the lower terrain in Calabria has been agricultural for centuries and exhibits indigenous scrubland as well as introduced plants, such as the prickly pear cactus (it: Fico d'India). The lowest slopes are rich in vineyards and citrus fruit orchards. Moving upwards, olives and chestnut trees appear while in the higher regions there are often dense forests of oak, pine, beech and fir trees.