The Sila Plateau: Ancient Forests and Silent Lakes in the Heart of Calabria

If someone blindfolded you and dropped you onto the Sila Plateau, opening your eyes you'd think you were in Scandinavia. Or Canada. Certainly not Calabria — a region the collective imagination reserves for sea, bergamot and chilli peppers. And yet this vast expanse of over 150,000 hectares, stretching across the provinces of Cosenza, Catanzaro and Crotone, is one of the best-kept secrets of southern Italy: a world of dense forests, crystalline lakes, rolling pastures and a silence that smells of resin and moss.

The Sila divides into three areas: Sila Grande, Sila Greca and Sila Piccola. The beating heart is the Sila Grande, home to lakes Arvo, Ampollino and Cecita — artificial reservoirs created in the 1920s and 30s that have integrated seamlessly into the natural landscape. Lake Arvo, the largest, is ringed by stands of Calabrian black pine — Pinus nigra calabrica, an endemic species that here reaches monumental heights and dimensions. Its waters shift through shades of turquoise and emerald depending on the light and season. You can walk along its shores for hours without meeting a soul, save the occasional angler casting for trout.

The ideal base for exploring the Sila is Camigliatello Silano, a small resort town at 1,272 metres. From here, numerous hiking trails of varying difficulty fan out across the plateau. The most celebrated leads to the Giants of the Sila, within the Fallistro Giants Nature Reserve: fifty-six black pines and five mountain maples between three and five hundred years old, with trunks reaching two metres in diameter. Walking among these vegetable colossi is an experience that cuts every human sense of grandeur down to size. The trail is accessible and flat, suitable even for children, and departs from the reserve entrance on the SP270 between Camigliatello and Spezzano della Sila.

For those seeking more demanding walks, the trail from Camigliatello up to Monte Botte Donato — the Sila's highest peak at 1,928 metres — rewards with panoramas that on clear days embrace both seas, the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian. The ascent takes around three hours and presents no technical difficulties, only a steady gain in altitude to be tackled at a measured pace.

In winter the Sila transforms. The ski resorts of Camigliatello and Lorica offer alpine runs and cross-country circuits, with snowfall that surprises anyone who associates Calabria only with heat. Cross-country skiing along the Giants trail, through pines laden with snow, is an experience that yields nothing to the celebrated pistes of Trentino — with the added bonus of non-existent queues and decidedly more humane prices.

The cooking of the Sila is mountain Calabrian: robust, flavourful, rooted in pastoralism and the forest. The star ingredient is the Sila IGP potato, grown in volcanic soil that gives it a texture and flavour unlike any other. You'll find them fried, baked, in soups, and above all in the "pitta 'mpigliata" and in preparations with porcini mushrooms, which in season — late autumn — are gathered in abundance. The Sila DOP caciocavallo, aged in natural caves, has an intense, slightly sharp flavour that pairs perfectly with local chestnut honey. Worth seeking out too are the soppressata and the black Sila pig sausage, still produced artisanally by small breeders.

For dining, the Tavernetta in Camigliatello is an institution: sautéed porcini, handmade pasta with wild boar ragù, grilled lamb cutlets. Alternatively, Agriturismo La Quiete near Lake Cecita offers a fixed-price menu at modest cost that is a journey through Sila peasant cooking. For a quick stop, Bar Biafora on the square in Camigliatello serves arancini and sandwiches with local cured meats that constitute a full meal.

For accommodation, the Parco dei Lupi at Cupone, near the National Park visitor centre, is an ecological and atmospheric option: wooden bungalows immersed in the forest. For more comfort, Hotel San Lorenzo on the square in Camigliatello is the classic base for exploring the area.

The Sila is a parallel Calabria — vertical, cool and silent. It is the perfect place for those who want mountains without the crowds of the Dolomites, lakes without the chaos of Garda, forests without the pretentiousness of trendy alpine destinations. It is nature in its purest state, with a supplement of authenticity that only the South can bestow.