Crotone
Santa Severina
The city of Crotone is known as one of the most important Greek colonies, where the philosopher Pythagoras established his school. The guided tour will start in the National Archaeological Museum, that hosts significant finds from the whole province, with a special department dedicated to the Hera Lacinia temple. We will go on towards the Carlo V castle, a medieval stronghold with a polygonal ground plan and two imposing towers. It rises above the old town center of Crotone, built during the IX century to defend the city against the Saracens’ incursions, and modified during the XVI century by the emperor Charles V. Worth seeing is the cathedral, whose original plan dates back to the IX century, rebuilt during the Renaissance (XV century) using marbles and other constructing materials from the Hera Lacinia temple. The cathedral homes many valuable artworks of different epochs. Pythagoras square is the most important meeting point in the modern part of the city, where we will taste some local dishes for lunch. <br/>In the afternoon we will visit Santa Severina and its Archaeological Museum that contains antiquities of different ages, that ranges from the Iron to the Classical world age, including the Norman, Byzantine, Hohenstaufen and Angevine eras. Santa Severina was called the “castled town” by many travelers, it is fact renowned for its castle whose construction dates back to the Norman domination (XI century), and it is probably built on a Byzantine fortress. The castle is still well preserved and has been renovated, after the castle we will go to the XIII century cathedral and to the byzantine baptistery, the only quite untouched one which has reached our age. Its style is similar to the central ground plan byzantine buildings like the Santa Costanza mausoleum in Rome. In the end there will be time for a wine tasting in local wine-cellar, this area is famous for the production of DOC and IGT wines like the Val di Neto, named after the underlying valley, which can be red, white, rosé, sparkling or sweet (passito).
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