The Hidden Coast of the Gods: From Pizzo to Capo Vaticano Without the Crowds

Everyone knows Tropea. Its clifftop historic centre, the church of Santa Maria dell'Isola, the red onion: images that have circled the globe and draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer. But few know that just a few kilometres in either direction you find yourself in a completely different world — a coast equally beautiful, with equally crystalline waters, but with a fraction of the crowds and an authenticity that Tropea has inevitably lost.

The ideal starting point is Pizzo Calabro, some fifteen kilometres north of Tropea. This small fishing borgo, perched on a promontory above the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia, is celebrated for two things: the Aragonese Castle where Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law and King of Naples, was tried and shot in 1815; and the tartufo di Pizzo, a handmade ice cream of irregular shape filled with molten chocolate and hazelnut, invented here and still prepared by hand in every gelateria in the centre. But Pizzo is much more than this.

The Chiesetta di Piedigrotta is the true hidden gem. Carved into the cliff's tufa rock in the seventeenth century — legend has it by Neapolitan shipwreck survivors giving thanks for their deliverance — it was later expanded and enriched with statues sculpted directly into the rock by local artists. The effect is surreal: entering through a small door on the beach, you find yourself in a grotto lit by natural fissures, with dozens of sacred figures emerging from the walls like a three-dimensional nativity scene. The visit costs a few euros and is worth every cent.

From Pizzo, following the coast south along the coastal road — bypassing the motorway — you pass through a series of villages and beaches that deserve extended stops. Briatico, with its Aragonese tower and San Francesco beach, is a fishing village where in the morning you can still watch the fish sale on the quay. The beach at Grotticelle, midway between Briatico and Tropea, is a cove sheltered by granite cliffs where the water is an unreal shade of blue.

Past Tropea — best crossed in the evening, when the tourists are at dinner and the streets empty out — you reach Capo Vaticano, a granite promontory jutting into the Tyrrhenian like the prow of a ship. The lighthouse at Capo Vaticano, built in 1885, is surrounded by a pine grove where you can rest in the shade enjoying a view that takes in the Aeolian Islands, with Stromboli on clear days standing perfectly cone-shaped on the horizon. The coves below the headland — Grotticelle, Formicoli, Praia i Focu — are reachable on foot via steep but panoramic trails, and offer perfect snorkelling grounds.

Continuing south, Joppolo and Coccorino are sleepy hamlets where tourism is almost an abstract concept. The beach at Coccorino, with its flat rocks and transparent water, is frequented almost exclusively by locals. Here time passes with a slowness that tastes of Calabria thirty years ago.

For dining, options along this stretch of coast are plentiful. In Pizzo, Trattoria da Ercole on the seafront serves the freshest fish with an incomparable view of the gulf: the fried anchovies and pasta with sardines are sublime. In Briatico, Ristorante Il Brigantino offers fish soups and sea urchin spaghetti worth the detour. For street food, Pizzo's rosticcerie serve pittelle fritte — little balls of leavened dough stuffed with anchovies or 'nduja — the perfect beach snack.

The red Tropea onion, despite its name, is actually cultivated along this entire coastal strip. At Ricadi and Capo Vaticano you'll find it at farm stalls along the road, fresh and sweet, perfect eaten raw in a salad with tomatoes and oregano. The wines to seek out are those of the Costa degli Dei, especially the Magliocco rosé — fresh and savoury, ideal with fish.

For accommodation away from the Tropea frenzy, Agriturismo Torre Ruffa, in an eighteenth-century masseria near Capo Vaticano, offers spacious sea-view rooms and a pool nestled among olive trees. In Pizzo, B&B Palazzo Ferrante in the historic centre has frescoed rooms and a terrace where breakfast becomes a panoramic ritual.

This itinerary from Pizzo to Capo Vaticano can be driven in a day, but it deserves at least three or four days to be savoured with the slowness that the Calabrian coast demands. It is proof that beauty in Calabria does not concentrate in one single point but distributes itself generously along kilometres of forgotten coastline, waiting for those curious enough to seek it out.

Practical guides for Napoli

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