Tropea per amore, vacanze, hotels e B&B a Tropea, itinerari, notizie da Tropea

The product: Monte Poro ewe's cheese is the area most famous cheese. It is loved by locals and tourist alike. The latter are always eager to find it in the menu. This cheese is available in every season since the ewes provide milk throughout the year. Delicious with any meal, in all seasons it makes a perfect addition to any meal. Hors d'oeuvres or salad, or meal: with or witout bread and salami.

There are numerous tradition that popular devotion has handet down in Tropea, some with origins dating back over one thousand years. Legend has it that the icon of the black Madonna of the cathedral of Tropea was stolen by local sailors from the Byzantine east (from which the epithet Madonna of Romania originates). Worschip of the Madonna intensified when the salvation of the town, which only suffered minimal damage following the earthquake of 27th March 1638, was attributed to the protective action of the Madonna. Bishop Ambrogio Cordova had visions of the Madonna on different occasions in his dreams warning of an imminent earthquake that would bring devastation to the whole of Calabria and asked him to organise a procession of repentace involving the entire population of Tropea.

An area of little importance during the most distant eras, Tropea developed as a qtown, above all, during the occupation of the Byzantines to whorm the town remained loyal for a long time. Its recent past  saw it become a prominent centre in politics and the economy: indeed a wealthy landed bourgeoisie developed,whose fortune is still visible today in in the seemliness of the numerous buildings in the historic centre.

Tropea also had a flourishing maritime trade which enabled the town to maintain economic ties with all countries in the Mediterranean.

The origins of Tropea are uncertain and as a result of this uncertainty reference is ofthen made to fanciful popolar tales and legends. The most common hypothesis (Pliny the Elder) is that the town was founded by Hercules who stopped while he was passing through the Tyrrenhian sea and constructed a port (from where the name Porto Ercole originates). Another describes how Sextus Pompeius, victorious in a battle against Octavius Augustus off Capo Vaticano, decided to celebrate his triumph by founding a town, Trofaea (Triumph), from which the name Tropea derives. There are others, however, who maintain that the name Tropea is attributable to local sailors (for which tropee meant tha plays of dangerous marine currents which characterise the area). During consolidation work carried out on the cattedral during the 1930s finds were discovered which testify in any case to the presence of Human settlements since the Neolithic period (3000 b.C). In the 1960s a necropolis dating from 1200s b.C.  was discovered near the cemetery, while more recent archaeological excavations (1980) unearthed ceramic fragments and building structures dating back to the 5th Century b.C. In the Torre Galli area, on the edge of the Poro plateau, there are the remains of a necropolis from Iron Age.

Scene of millenary history, proud of its past as an important fortress town and the aristocratic families which turned it into a thriving centre the most symbolic resort of Capo vaticano and, above all, the emblem of tourism in Calabria. A vocation developed over the years and which has exploded in recent times in the point where the town is well establisched on the international tourism circuit.

Salina used to be called Didyme (Gemini), by the Greeks since it was formed by two mountains which join the Valdichiesa valley where the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Terzito lies. Its name, on the other hand, derives from the salt lake in Punta Lingua which was once used to extract sea salt. Today the small lake is little more than a pool where egrets alight during their annual migrations from Africa. Here the ruins of walls of a building dating back to the Roman Imperial era can also be found. The peak, Fossa delle Felci, (963 meters), is the highest of the entire Archipelago. A typical excursion would be that leading to the Monti Fossa delle Felci e dei Porri wildlife reserve.

Their slopes are used to cultivate grapes which produce the Malvasia win appreciated by connoisserus arond the world. The grapevines grew thanks to the fact that Salina is the only island in the Archipelago which has its own fresh water springs. This is also the reason why it is the only one to be covered by a luxuriant green mantle. Another attractive natural sight is offered by the beach which can be reached from the Pollara center. Here, the foot of the Monte dei Porri forms a natural amphitheater from where it is possible to admire the “Faraglione” reef.

Lipari is crossed by north and sirocco winds and thanks to its crystal clear waters and to its clear blue sky, to the beauty of tis countryside and to its historical background, it is a popular resort for summer and winter tourism. It is the Archipelago's capital and is the most complex and interesting island from a geological and volcanoligic perspective. It was formed during four different periods of eruptions which stratified.
The third period brought a strata of pumice and the fourth a strata of obsidian and it is thanks to these two marerials that the island's fortune began because in the prehistoric era, by splintering and properly wording obsidian, many utensils were made, utensils whose sales enriched Lipari until metals were later discovered.

Pumice, on the other hand, is still exported today. During the XIII century B.C., populations coming from the Campania coasts settled in the Archipelago and they brought the legend of the Liparo King with them, who lends his name to the island. Another wealth which is still important and renown even in ancient times are the springs.
Next to the therapeutic waters of San Calogero there is a “grotta sudatoria” or (sauna cave), the “heater” dating back to the Roman era, which today has been incorporated into a mud bath establishment. During recento work to restructure the spa, a dome-shaped building dating back to the XV century B.C. And part of the Mycenaean civilization was brought to light. This discovery confirms the relations which Greece and the Aeolian islands had during the entire Bronze Age. The second most imporant center is Lipari.
The center spreads over the two picturesque Marina Lunga and Marica Corta inlets and the gathers around its Castle. This acropolis bears witness to the past: here Neolithic populations lived, populations of the first Metal Age, of the Bronze Age and of the Hellenistic Age. Ruins of the ancient city can still be seen, there are Hellenistic remains, churches, the Episcopal Palace and the Cathedral built by Ruggero the Norman in 1084, but totally rebuilt during the Baroque Age.
It still preserves intact the Gothic cross vaults, valuable decorations,, stucco work of the XVIII century and paintings of great artistic importance. There are also other most interesting churches like the Immacolata, with its smooth facade. It is medieval but has a small cylindrical dome and a baroque facade. Then there is the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie with its eighteenth-century facade.
The Castle is surrounded bu the well preserved walls which were built by the Spanish during the XVI century. These englobe a tower, element of the most ancient Greek walls. The Greek necropolis of Lipari spreads from North of the Diana plane between the Ponte and Santa Lucia valleys and is one Siciliy's richest.