Tour Guides Calabria - Ancestry Research

03/06/2024

Quando leggi in autostrada Calabria a tanti inizia a ba***re il cuore perché significa: Finalmente a casa. ❤️

27/10/2023

24/09/2022

Area Grecanica

15/03/2022

CALABRIA - Italy - The Marmarico Waterfalls, in the Calabrian Sierras, are the Highest Natural Waterfalls in Italy: 360 feet. Located in a gorge surrounded by beautiful and wild mediterranean bush, "Marmarico" is also the name of the river from which the waterfalls originate. It means "looney", most of the time is a little stream but can change its "temperament" if it starts raining: the little stream quickly turns into a roaring river... and if you are caught in the gorge could be dangerous...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUCWFtmWgso&t=1s

CALABRIA - The Marmarico Waterfalls, in the Calabrian Sierras, are the Highest Natural Waterfalls in Italy: 360 feet. Located in a gorge surrounded by beauti...

01/02/2022

Views - Calabria East Coast

22/06/2021

The "Pietà del Gagini" (1521), kept in the Mother Church dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrow in Soverato Superiore (Catanzaro – Calabria - Italy).

Masterful work by Antonello Gagini, considered one of the greatest sculptors of the Italian Renaissance. Born and died in Palermo (1478-1536), Gagini also had brief Tuscan and Roman acquaintances. He lived for a period of his youth in Messina (where he had also started an import/export business of marble), but then settled permanently in Palermo; he worked mainly in Calabria and Sicily.

The Statue was originally part of the Convent of Santa Maria della Pietà in Petrizzi (which at the time was part of the territory of Soverato) destroyed by the 1783 earthquake. The “Pietà” also suffered serious damage and was subsequently transported to Soverato.

A major restoration took place between '64 and '68, in the restoration laboratory of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. Here the fragments detached from the marble group were reinserted and the missing parts were made in different marble in order to underline the missing non-original inserted parts.

The "Pietà" was commissioned to Gagini by a descendant of San Tommaso d'Aquino (who was born in Belcastro - Calabria). Which is why in the center of the base of the statue there is a bas-relief with the figure of St. Thomas, surrounded by other Dominicans, sculpted in the act of giving an ex-cathedra lecture on Averroism and metaphorically crushing Averroes (the greatest Islamic philosopher) and with him his teachings as well. On the sides San Michele Arcangelo and San Giovanni Battista.

On the base there is also the signature and the date that certifies its authenticity: "hoc opus Antoni Gagini panormitae MCCCCCXXI" (this work is by Antonio Gagini 1521 from Palermo).

This year is the 500th anniversary of this fabulous work of art.

02/06/2021

Second Leg - Kalabria Coast to Coast
https://youtu.be/tMhOEgEO-kM

This is the Second Leg of the "Kalabria Coast to Coast" Trail. 15 miles through woods, flowery fields, hill towns and mountain forests. We are going from Pet...

22/04/2021

MUSEUM of the OIL MILL

Close to Catanzaro Lido, on the Ionian Coast of Calabria, there is a wonderful “Museum of the Oil Mill” made out of a real Olive Oil Mill from 1934.
It was property of Baron Mazza, who owned several thousand acres of land.
Most of his land estate was covered (and still is today) by Olive Grows, producing tons of olives that would be harvested in a short amount of time: only a couple of months.
In order to make Extra Virgin Olive Oil it is necessary to harvest the olives between October and November, and process them immediately after harvesting: 2 hours max, otherwise the olives start fermenting and the acidity exceeds 1%, wasting the product.

In the old times, up to the 1950s, the same device used since the beginning of times was used to make olive oil: large granite wheels to grind the olives and manual presses to squeeze the oil out of the olive paste. The grindstones were turned by animals (donkeys or oxen) who, walking in circles, pulled the wheels. This was a slow process and much slower was the manual pressing process, so slow that they would process in three days the amount of olives collected in one day.

This resulted in a huge amount of olives left rotting in a corner, waiting to be crushed. On the other hand, they could not wait beyond the end of November to harvest the olives, because otherwise the approach of winter would have wasted them forever. So, Baron Mazza in 1934 decided to improve all this and set up a new “advanced” Industrial Olive Oil Mill, which worked until 1955. The wheels were made turn by electric engines, the presses were driven by hydraulic pumps.

Once the olives were brought to the Mill, first they would get rid of the leaves that are always found among the harvested olives, using a partly manual device that basically blew on the olives wile a guy was kind of stirring them, and the leaves were swept away.
After that, the olives were washed to clean them from the dust in a sort of “washing machine for olives”. Once cleaned, the load was placed into the grinders that would squash the whole olives, the bone included.

The resulting paste was put into the “fiscole” (round pockets made of canvas), the fiscole were piled up in the presses and the hydraulic pumps would do the rest. This was the “first cold pressing”, the best quality olive oil, but there was still a little bit of oil in the remaining paste. They would grind the paste again in the “Molazza” (a bigger grindstone) and put it in the so-called “Mega-Presses”, to squeeze the last drop of olive oil from the “sansa” (the pomace, this is the name of the dry leftovers from the pressing).

The liquid obtained from the pressing was only partly olive oil (only 20-25%), the rest was water; so it was placed in settling tanks and left there untouched for a few days.
The olive oil, lighter than water, would rise to the upper part of the tank, separating itself from the water and facilitating the collection. After WWII, in the late 1940s, new “separators” began to be used in Italy. Basically, they are centrifuges: spinning very fast separate the heavier part (water) from the lightest (olive oil). Strange enough, the new separators were invented in Northern Europe, where they were used to make butter from cow’s milk.

The remaining water was not directly thrown away but stored in big tanks until the end of the harvesting. This is because there was still a little bit of oil in it: once the water was settled, people could collect on the surface the oil left. Obviously, this last olive oil was dark, dirty and very acid, it was not edible; but in the old times people would make soap out of it, mixing the olive oil with soda and pork fat: hypoallergenic soap.
The Wisdom of the Ancestors…

14/04/2021

CALABRIA OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
https://youtu.be/BQY-HhQ8kRE

www.tourguidescalabria.com

Driving down a narrow road with the Ionian sea in front of us

05/04/2021

Great conversation with Gianluca about Calabria, including it's Greek beginning, food and people, including his grandmother's story about "How God Created Ca...

01/04/2021

CALABRIA - Italy, original Roman bridge still standing from the 2nd century BC. The oldest in Italy, it is located in the municipality of SCIGLIANO, in the province of COSENZA, in a still pretty wild area. Its name is “Ponte Sant’Angelo”; the length of the arch is 70.5 feet, while the width is 11.6 feet. The maximum height is 36 feet above the current level of the river.

The Bridge, was part of the Popilia Consular Road, built by the Romans around 132 b.C.; the Popilia was a paved road connecting Capua (close to Naples) to Reggio Calabria, roughly 350 miles. The Romans chose the shortest route: its way was through forests, mountains and gorges; it is more or less the same path followed by the highway nowadays.

It is amazing how the Roman Engineers overcame all the problems encountered along the way; stones were used but also concrete made with a special volcanic sand called Pozzolan. The cement made with pozzolan is extremely hard and has the property of solidifying under water.

This is how they built Ponte Sant'Angelo more than 2000 years ago, still standing and still perfectly safe: even trucks use the bridge to cross the river.

17/03/2021

SCYLLA: the Little Venice of Southern Italy

Some shots from Scylla - Calabria Italy. In the first photo, the panorama of the "Marina Grande" (the beach) and the Strait of Messina. Scilla is located on the Strait of Messina, just two miles from Sicily, which you can see in front of the beach.

Then the view of Ruffo Castle and in the background the silhouette of Stromboli, the most active volcano in Europe ( one of the Aeolian Islands); the last two shots come from “Chianalea” the old fishermen's quarter, with houses built right by the sea.

Scilla has been a safe harbor since the beginning of time: at the time of the Roman Empire the Marina Grande was an important port for the Roman fleet, it was also a decisive stronghold to guard the Strait. The first real castle was built in medieval times, enlarged and fortified over the centuries until the sixteenth century.

Chianalea is called "the Little Venice", still today it hosts families of fishermen who for generations went out at sea to catch the King of the Sea: the Swordfish

15/03/2021

Hannibal's Elephants

Mysterious ancient anthropic sculptures in the territory of the town of Campana in Calabria – Italy. This site is called "Hannibal’s Elephants" (referring to Hannibal, the Carthaginian Leader who, coming from Northern Africa, crossed the Alps and invaded Italy at the end of the 2nd century b.C., bringing many elephants with his army).

Another interpretation is that the sculpture was to remember the war of Pyrrhus the King of Epirus (who deployed many elephants during the war in Southern Italy in 280 b.C.).

But the sculptures date back to a much older age, a few thousand years. The one on the left is clearly an elephant, on the right what remains of the "Seated Warrior" (from another angle you can see the first part of the Warrior's body, it would seem like half of the body of a sitting man from the feet up to almost the waist. Could the underlying cavities have some cultic value linked to the cult of the dead?

27/02/2021

Why are Roman Statues often beheaded?
In most of the statues from the times of ancient Rome the head is missing. Some of them are in pieces, but others look intact and most of the times only the head and hands or forearms are missing.
What is the reason?

During the period of the Republic and that of the Roman Empire (roughly from the 5th century BC to AD 395), all Roman Cities had a certain number of statues. Most of them were decorative, displayed in public places, arcades or temples representing gods or mythical heroes, but others depicted real people: politicians, generals or emperors.

"Roman City" means a city in which the citizens were true Roman citizens and had all the rights and duties that this condition entails. Each Roman City had to have all the basic public buildings: a Theater, often an Amphitheater for games (the Arena) and the Forum (the main square). The Forum was a rectangular square, the center of the city, surrounded by the main institutional buildings: the Capitolium (basically the town hall); the Cesareum (a sort of small temple for the glorification of the Emperor); the Basilica (the Courthouse); the Curia (administrative offices); the Tabernae (places where people could eat and drink) and often the public latrine.

In the actual square many statues were displayed, most of which represented real people. Those were the politicians: the Magistrates of the town but also the Proconsul of the province, the Consuls of the Empire and finally the Emperor. The white marble of the statues was partially painted, perfectly representing the features of the person depicted. Not only were the clothes (often a tunic) painted, but the hair was also colored, the eyebrows and eyes with the iris and pupil.

It was a perfect portrait, that was the only way to see "in person" the most important people of the Empire, so that anyone would recognize them if one day by chance actually met them. At that time, neither photography nor television had yet been invented.

So, think about how many thousands of statues the Roman Empire needed: at its peak, the Empire covered almost all of Europe, plus North Africa and the Middle East. Think about the thousands of cities and thousands of squares: what would happen when not only the new Emperor, but even just a new Consul would take over? Replace all the statues depicting that person across the empire and create new statues or just change heads? The latter was easier: less waste of marble and it was better for the shipping too.

The heads were not thrown away, but were kept in the city archives to remember the politicians of the city’s history and of the Empire. Therefore, being able to show "marble heads" of ancestors was considered a proof of the value and power of the family.

The hands were replaced as well: most of the time the posture or what the statues held in their hands was an attribute or a symbol of the character represented. The statues depicting real people were made life-size, and you recognize them from the hollow where the neck would fit. Looking at the hands and forearms, the junction points are clearly visible and there is often the iron hook (which would hold the interchangeable piece) still in place.

In Calabria – Italy, it is plenty of archeological sites: the territory is dotted with remnants of ancient towns and there have been many findings. After the Fall of the Roman Empire, Barbarian Hordes raged over the Italian peninsula from north to south for decades. The population of Calabria in few years decreased to a third, the cities were destroyed, people fled from the major urban centers because not safe. People scattered in the countryside, often in the mountains to hide from marauders; the ancient knowledge was largely lost and the Dark Age began.

Most of the Roman cities were abandoned, but people would come back time to time to prey on the ruins. Above all they would look for marble, not to reuse it but to turn it into mortar: firing the marble in a kiln for hours turns it into a kind of slaked lime.

So, this is why many ancient marble statues have been found in pieces. The beautiful polychrome marble slabs that decorated the walls of the Roman villas and Roman baths have also been turned into mortar.

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23/02/2021

SCOLACIUM Archeological Park

This is a wonderful Archeological Park near Catanzaro Lido, on the Ionian Coast of Calabria. Located in a wonderful olive grove and with an area of over 70 acres, the park houses remnants from the Imperial Roman period to medieval times.

Entering the park, the first impressive remains are those of the Abbey of Santa Maria della Roccella, a church built at the end of the 11th century.
After the Abbey, walking among centenary olive trees you reach the area of the Roman Forum, the Theatre, and the Amphitheatre. At the top of the hill, the Byzantine Necropolis.
The Archeological Museum houses only artifacts found in the Scolacium area.

Scolacium Archeological Park is a rather unknown archaeological site, the main excavations are recent, despite its importance: it is one of the most important archaeological evidence from Roman times in Calabria.
more on my blog post:
https://tourguidescalabria.com/articles/scolacium-archeological-park/

SCOLACIUM Archeological Park Febbraio 23, 2021    -    Articles    -    archeology , history , museum    -    This is a wonderful Archeological Park near Catanzaro Lido, on the Ionian Coast of Calabria.  Located in a wonderful olive grove and with an area of over 70 acres, the park hous...

18/02/2021

Sicilian Gentleman - late 1800s

16/02/2021

The town of SANTA SEVERINA is part of the club “The Most Beautiful Villages of Italy”, about 20 miles away from Crotone, Calabria – Italy. As you drive inland coming from the Ionian Coast, the land becomes drier and wilder, deserted hills on the right and picturesque hilltop villages on the left. Santa Severina is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the valley, a natural stronghold made impregnable by the Normans who built their imposing Fortress, one of the best-preserved castles in Italy. Close to the castle, the Byzantine Baptistery which dates back to the 6th century. Through its monuments, Santa Severina tells 1500 years of real history.

16/02/2021

14/02/2021

The Old & the Young, this video was shot in the Aspromonte mountains, in Calabria – Italy, a couple of years ago. They were playing for a wedding, some areas of Calabria can be very rural, it is like stepping back in time… like in the movies!

12/02/2021

Ancestor's family picture 1898, it was taken in Pazzano, Calabria - Italy

09/02/2021

STILO, Calabria - Italy. This is the "Cattolica", a small Byzantine church from the 9th century. Despite the name, its rite is still Greek Orthodox. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD; Calabria remained part of the Eastern Roman Empire for six more centuries. This is called the "Byzantine period", which has left many traces of Greek culture in Calabrian traditions, food and religion. Basically, until the end of 1500 the religion of half of the people living in Calabria was Greek Orthodox. The Cattolica looks like an Armenian church, it is square with five domes, the interiors are covered with remains of frescoes from ancient times. The four pillars inside are Roman columns from the ancient Greek/Roman town of Kaulon (close by), reused by the Byzantines in the 9th century to build the Cattolica.

05/02/2021

5000 years old Megalithic site in Calabria. The "Calabrian Sierras" are a mountain range that rises in the southern part of Calabria. The average altitude is 3000 feet, the Sierras rise in the center of the region close to the sea on either side, a few miles. So, due to its proximity to the sea, the rainfall rate is very high and, together with mild temperatures for most of the year, results in the perfect environment for a Mediterranean Rainforest. But despite Calabria being in the center of the Mediterranean, these mountains are high enough to snow regularly every year.

In a rather wild place along the ridge of the mountains, spread over a large area, Megalithic Artifacts were "officially" found in 1998, but the shepherds of this area have known about them since the beginning of time. They used to call them the "petri incastidati ": in the local dialect it means "the stones piled up".

These megaliths were built with a similar technique to that used to build Machu Picchu.
Unfortunately, many sites were destroyed in the 1950s to plunder the granite they were made of, but those that were in the harshest places remained largely intact.

The answer to the question of who erected them, and why, has not been found yet.

02/02/2021

CATANZARO UNDERGROUND, the ancient Dungeons of the former Norman Castle of Catanzaro. These are centuries-old underground routes dug in the living rock: starting from the Castle area, they extend throughout the underground of the Medieval City, connecting the Castle with Churches, Monasteries, Convents and finally leading out of the town through hidden exits/entrances.

29/01/2021

Squillace (province of Catanzaro, Calabria - Italy)

Squillace Castle is one of the earliest Norman Castle of Calabria. It was built at the top of the hill where the Byzantine village was located (the so-called “Kastron”, which was a fortified village). The purpose of the castle was to protect and control the village at the same time: during the early days of the Norman conquest, revolts were frequent.

Built around 1050 AD, it was enlarged and fortified at the beginning of the 13th century by Frederick II, the "Stupor Mundi", who added the Octagonal Tower. At the top of its portal, the coat of arms of the Borgia family: in 1494 Goffredo Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI) at the age of 13 married Sancia d'Aragona (who was 17), heir to the Principality of Squillace.

When an earthquake half-destroyed the castle in 1783, part of the remaining wings was used as the local prison until the end of the 1970s.

23/01/2021

The Allies, with Operation Baytown, on Sept the 3rd 1943 landed in Calabria. After a heavy bombardment, the Allies with an amphibious landing set foot on the mainland in the stretch of coast between Reggio and Villa San Giovanni. The Germans had already gone inland, only the Italian troops remained to defend the coast and, after the bombing, the opposition to the landing was very light. This was the only battle on the ground.
The rest of the German Army deployed in the region, left Calabria very soon heading north to Salerno. Soon the Italian army was disbanded and the fortifications along the coast were abandoned. In the pictures you can see some of the casemates and bunkers on the beach of Giovino, close to Catanzaro Lido.
In ’43 the beach was wider and there were no trees, to have a clear view of the landing line. Never used for their purposes, these structures are still property of the Italian Army and are protected. They are made of reinforced concrete and were once covered with 3-inch thick steel plates.

20/01/2021

Catanzaro Lido waterfront, today 20°C

18/01/2021

Wonderful encounter during an Ancestry Tour, also here I was with some of the most lovely people I have ever met

13/01/2021

This is the Orthodox Monastery of San Giovanni Theristis near Bivongi, Calabria Italy. This area is considered a kind of “Holy Land” for the orthodox, many hermits and anchorites over the centuries moved over to Calabria from Greece, the Middle East and from Egypt as well. From the 6th to 11th century Calabria was part of the Byzantine Empire, the migration of the monks took place in waves. The first was in the 7th century, when the Arabs conquered North Africa and the Christian monks who lived in that area were forced to leave and settle elsewhere. Calabria was the perfect place: not densely populated, surrounded by the sea and with high mountains where they could lead their holy life away from everyday life. The second wave was in the following century, during the so-called iconoclastic period. Between 730 and 843, all icons and in general any artifact (including statues) that depicted sacred images were banned in Christian territories. Monks and holy men left Greece and the Middle East bringing with them statues, icons and relics of the saints they worshiped. Most of them moved to Calabria, but also to other areas of Southern Italy.
The third wave was a hundred years later, when the Arabs conquered Sicily and those living there migrated to Calabria. The Orthodox Monks flourished in Calabria for centuries, founding monasteries and contributing to the religious heritage of the region. San Giovanni Theristis is one of the oldest, named after a local saint who performed many miracles during his life. His name was Giovanni, Theristis was added because in Greek means “the harvester”. In the pictures the one thousand years old Abbey of San Giovanni Theristis.

15/12/2020

Ancestry Research on original old books written in LATIN! Following the thread of your heritage often gives you the chance to hold centuries old books in your hands; we finally found the documents we were looking for in the Parish Church of a little mountain village. Unfortunately, most of the books with birth/marriage records were destroyed by a fire in the late 1700. The oldest book dates back to 1770, we were lucky: they survived the fire!

30/11/2020

Next time you visit Italy... come to Calabria! It is perfect, no crowds and plenty of small charming old villages where you can stay

Medieval architects, deserted towns and remote countryside -- what sounds like the ingredients for a horror movie could actually be the recipe for the perfect Covid-era hotel.