This is the Untold Italy travel podcast you're listening to episode number 130.

Ciao at all and benvenuti to Untold Italy, the travel podcast where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes, hills and coastlines of

Bella Italia. Each week your host, Katie Clark, takes you on a journey in search of magical

landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course, a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming

of Italy and planning future adventures there,

you've come to the right place.

Ongiorno, all right, let's head south today to the toe of Italy's boot and the region known as Calabria.

Many of our listeners, including me, have strong family connections to this lesser known part of

Italy and it's always a pleasure to explore the really beautiful countryside that you'll hear about

today. Calabria is well known in Europe for its stunning beaches, but somehow the rest of us didn't

get the memo, and beaches aren't the only drawcard.

Calabria has a rich cultural heritage, gorgeous hilltop towns and some of the most

unique and delicious dishes in Italy.

Many visitors zip through Calabria on their way to Sicily from the

Amalfi Coast, but it's a bit of a mistake in our opinion. There are so many beautiful

off-the-beaten path treasures to be found here. And something tells me they won't be off the

beaten path for too much longer. Our guest today is author Karen Hayde, who literally wrote the book on Calabria. Her book,

Calabria, the other Italy, is one of the few English language resources you can find on the region,

and not only is it unique, but it's also extremely well researched and full of funny anecdotes.

Karen runs group tours in Calabria each year and has kindly agreed to share with us some ideas

on how you can spend a week in this lovely region.

So curious, travellers, let's jump in and find out how we can build our Calabria itinerary.

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