Inside the cathedral of Tropea, propped against a wall, are two aircraft bombs from the second world war. They fell on the town in 1943 and did not explode; they were defused and placed here, because the people of Tropea credited their escape to the Madonna of Romania, their patron. It is a votive offering the size of a person, and there are not many like it in Italy.
What to see
The church was built by the Normans in the twelfth century, with blocks of yellow tuff and lava stone that give the masonry a warm, striped colour. In the seventeenth century it was lengthened and made baroque, then earthquakes damaged it several times and restoration has given it back the Norman look of its three naves.
The image venerated here is the icon of the Virgin of Romania, that is of eastern Rome: a Byzantine panel that arrived by the sea roads of the Mediterranean, as many did in southern Italy. The church also keeps a dark wooden crucifix of great popular devotion.
Visiting
The cathedral is in the old town, on the cliff, five minutes from the viewpoint over the Isola Bella; free entry, closed at midday and during services. Twenty minutes.
Our editors' tip
Look at the two bombs and then go out onto the town's natural terrace: below is the sea, opposite the rock with its sanctuary, and to the right, on clear days, you see Stromboli smoking on the horizon. Tropea can be visited in half an hour, but it is this passage from the dark of the church to the light on the cliff that stays with you.
