Gerocarne

The name is a family: the Gherakàrones, that is the members of the Ieracari household, and in Greek hierakarés means falconers — so the village carries the name of the men who kept the hawks. In Byzantine Greek it is Jerakàri, and in the local speech Riuracàrne. It stands at two hundred and forty-one metres on the western slope of the Serre, crossed by the Morano torrent, in a territory that climbs from ninety-three metres at its lowest point to more than eleven hundred at its highest.

Gerocarne borders ten comuni — among them Serra San Bruno, Soriano Calabro, Dinami and Arena — which is a way of saying that it sits in the middle of the ring of villages holding the slope between the Serre and the Mesima. The territory is crossed by two important roads, the motorway with its Vazzano exit and the trunk road across the Serre. The old craft of the place is terracotta, decorated with the motifs of popular tradition, and the coat of arms was granted in 2002.