On 16 August 1972 an amateur diver noticed a bronze arm rising from the sand off Riace: the two fifth-century-BC Greek warriors recovered that day are now the treasure of Reggio's National Archaeological Museum, and they alone justify a trip to Calabria. The city keeps them while facing the Strait of Messina, along a seafront that tradition — quoting D'Annunzio — calls "the most beautiful kilometre in Italy".
On the right days the Fata Morgana appears over the Strait, the mirage that pulls Sicily closer. At the foot of the Aspromonte grow the bergamots whose scent is the secret soul of the world's great teas.
Near Reggio di Calabria
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
