In Calabria, Getting a Taste of an Unspoiled Italian Summer

"I had been in Calabria for less than 24 hours when I found myself standing in an artist's bottega in the town of Pizzo and listening to Antonio Montesanti talk about the Greek hero Achilles. Just outside the door, cars and Vespas vroomed past, but as this cheery straw-hatted painter and ceramist talked about his Southern Italian region's deep connection with the distant Mediterranean past, the cars became chariots and the scooters morphed into mules."

"In this part of Calabria, Antonio explained, fishermen still scratch a crosshatched pattern with their nails on the cheeks of the swordfish they catch. They do this-he informed me in a matter-of-fact way, as if recounting what he'd had for lunch-to free the souls of Achilles's loyal warriors, the Myrmidons, who transformed into these sleek, powerful silver-blue fish after the death of their commander."

"Nicotera is famous as the town that "taught the world to eat," after being chosen in 1957 as one of the earliest data-collection centers for research into what would become known as the Mediterranean diet. After lunch on a hot July day, it felt more like the town that taught the world to have a siesta. The only sign of life came when we stopped at a pedestrian crossing for three young boys, 10 or 11 years old at a guess."

"Rather than being hunched over their game consoles, these guys were reenacting a legend that-accor"

Calabria offers local delicacies, pristine beaches, and distinct cultures while remaining largely off the main tourist route. In Pizzo, an artist’s workshop connects contemporary craft to the Mediterranean past through stories of Achilles, where everyday sounds and movement become part of a mythic imagination. Fishermen in the area scratch crosshatched patterns on swordfish cheeks to free the souls of Achilles’s loyal warriors, the Myrmidons, who are said to transform into the fish. In Nicotera, the town’s role in early research into the Mediterranean diet is paired with a slow, siesta-like atmosphere. Children reenact a legend with drums and improvised costumes, keeping cultural memory active in daily life.

Read at Conde Nast Traveler