Serra d'Aiello is one of the Albanian villages of Calabria: in Arbëresh it is called Serrë, and its people descend from the communities that came from the far side of the Adriatic. The language, though, is no longer spoken here: Arbëresh was lost around 1870, and before that the Byzantine rite had already gone, replaced by the Latin one — the same happened at Santa Caterina Albanese, San Martino di Finita, Cerzeto, Rota Greca and Spezzano Albanese. What remains of the origin lies in the customs, the habits and many words of the dialect.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the village had about 900 inhabitants who lived off the land: wine, olive oil and fruit, and above all the rearing of silkworms, which in these parts was the item that counted. The territory climbs from the valley floor up to 417 metres and the village sits half way up: little ground and a great deal of slope, as in almost all this part of Calabria.
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📅 Every year, on 11 November
On 11 November Serra d'Aiello celebrates its patron Saint Martin the Bishop; the town hosts the Museo Archeologico Temesa, on the ancient city mentioned in the Odyssey.
Sweet enough to go into ice cream, grown along a strip of Tyrrhenian coast: Cipolla Rossa di Tropea Calabria has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2008.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Serra d'Aiello, but an easy day trip away.
