The city of Vibo Valentia is the biggest of the so-called “Costa degli Dei” or “Costa Bella”, and has a 8.000 years old history. The guided visit will start in the old town center, where the typical medieval structure of the hamlet is still intact with its imposing mansions with yellow tufa façades and religious buildings, between them is important to mention a bell-tower of the Renaissance in the San Michele church. You will also visit the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and San Leoluca (the cathedral): it was built during the XVII century over the ruins of a IX century byzantine basilica and it preserves valuable artworks. The city archaeological park of Vibo Valentia builds a didactic itinerary inside the city, to reconstruct its history and to let the Greek and Roman spurs show up against other medieval and modern monuments (such as XVII-XVIII century city walls, churches, abbeys, mansions). Going up to the hill that towers above the town, we will arrive to the great Norman Castle, built in the XI century by Ruggiero the Norman, which rises probably from the ruins of the Acropolis. The castle is a peculiar symbol of Vibo Valentia, characterized by its imposing cylindrical towers and by a great portal of the Angevine era. It is home to the National Archaeological Museum, where is preserved one of the most important Hellenic finds: the “laminetta aurea”, a golden leaf with the oldest and most complete Orphic texts found in Italy. The lunch break will let you taste some of the typical products like the very well-known ‘nduja. After lunch you will visit Spilinga the small town that is the birth place of the ‘nduja, a spicy spreadable sausage, which has internationally become the Calabrian food par excellence.

Pizzo

Vibo Valentia

During the afternoon the tour will go on in anther renowned town of the “Costa degli Dei”: Pizzo Calabro, famous for the production of a particular kind of ice-cream called tartufo, and for the general good quality of ice-cream is called “the city of ice-cream”. The old town center of Pizzo offers, because of its geographic position, unique marine landscapes and a nice medieval hamlet with important monuments like the castle of Gioacchino Murat. The building was a former Aragonese fortress of the XV century, which became in 1815 the place where Murat, was imprisoned and executed. The castle is now a museum, dedicated to the memory of its famous prisoner and contains some historical reconstructions of the events and some historical testimonies too. Then you will visit the scenic cave church of Piedigrotta, a small church built, according to a legend, in the XVII by some Neapolitans shipwrecked sailors. Those sailors wanted to thank God for having saved their lives, so they decided to build this church which was decorated, at the beginning of the XX century with statues hewn up in tufa.

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