Tropea is definitely one of the most popular cities in Calabria. And we understand why. This place is teeming with life. There are plenty of local rarities, clothing and souvenir boutiques, cafes, bars, restaurants and great beaches. What’s more, it is in Tropea that we find the Sanctuary of Santa Maria dell’Isola, picturesquely situated on a hill.
You can decide to stay in Tropea, but in the high season there are many tourists here, that’s why we would recommend you Capo Vaticano about 13 km away.
Agenda
Breakfasts in Villa Basilio
On booking.com we have managed to find a brilliant apartment right in Capo Vaticano. Beautiful Villa Basilio in Capo Vaticano took our breath away. Purely italian with traditional breakfast – for us a perfect combination.
In the morning in Villa Basilio we were welcomed with the first Italian breakfast. Our host Riccardo ensured us that we would be spoiled during our stay in Villa Basilio. He brought us two types of breakfasts – sweet and salty for us to choose which one we prefer. Eating breakfast in such surrounding was exceptional!
Riccardo offered to show us local beach. Soon after breakfast we drove behind him to beautiful beach from which we could see Stromboli volcano. Have you ever been swimming in the sea with such view?
Tropea
After spending some time at the beach we decided to do a bit of sightseeing and drove to Tropea. It is one of the main tourist destinations of the region.
Shops and restaurants
This is the most touristic city in this region. Peaceful and typically italian Tropea is captivating with it’s atmosphere, views, shops and restaurants. It’s a great place for an afternoon walk when the sun is not so strong. Stop for ice cream or delicious iced coffee!
Santa Maria dell’Isola
We spend some time walking around the city center and then we noticed breathtaking view. Santa Maria dell’Isola is probably the most incredible monastery we have ever seen. It is accessible only by climbing up a winding flight of steps carved directly into the cliffside and is surrounded by lovely garden. It is worth climbing though because the church is amazing and you also get outstanding view of Tropea and Tyrrhenian Sea.
Time for Martini
After walking so much it was high time to rest. We felt like our beloved drink – Martini. Searching for place to seat was not hard as Martini like Aperol is typical italian beverage. Lovely waitress served us with drinks and surprised us with plate of snacks.
We were not going to complain but prime plan was to search for nice dinner place after having couple of drinks. Because of that when ordering second ones Przemek tried to explain our waitress that we wish to order just Martini, no snacks. They could not understand each other in English and speaking Italian was a challenge as Przemek knows only words such as pizza and mozzarella… After a couple of minutes struggling to comprehend our waitress asked us what languages could we speak. Polish was said last and to our surprise it turned out that she was polish! 🙂 Karina has been living in Italy for 20 years, studies in Messina and speaks perfect polish.
We talked a bit about living in south of Italy and cultural differences. She also explained that a drink and a snack plate are a set so we just ate another one!
Pizza
Once the aperitif has settled in your stomachs and you feel the first hunger, go for a delicious and very affordable pizza in Pizzeria Vecchio Forno! here you will pay EUR 4-8 for a pizza. It is so delicious that a queue is set up in front of the pizzeria even before opening (at 7 pm). We highly recommend it!
Experience with us!
Brought to you by: Julia i Przemyslaw
