Cirò, Calabria

The Ionian coast of Calabria, north of Capo Colonna, stretches straight north.
Calabria is imagined as a region of the south that looks south, to Africa. It’s true. But there is more: It looks east, towards Greece, towards the rising sun.
The North and Europe are distant concepts. Here, everything comes from the sea and finds its true essence in the sea… Even the vineyards.

Coming from the east, the Greek settlers naturally met the Ionian coast and settled there. Then came the Romans and finally the Byzantines who – as emissaries of the Eastern Roman Empire – were at home, defending these lands from Arab influence, which was never stable here. For this reason, the culture and lifestyle of Ionic Calabria have close ties with the Greek and Byzantine East, more than in the Arab or African world.