Quinto Giorno/Day 5

Capo Vaticano, Tropea & Maida

• Breakfast … and off to Capo Vaticano and Tropea e il mare che brilla! (where the sea shimmers)

• Capo Vaticano is a majestic granite promontory, likely one of the most ancient formations in the Mediterranean basin. Today it's a protected ecological sanctuary, and in Magna Graecia it was also considered a sacred site. Two hundred meters off the cape stands a rock called "Il Mantineo," from which the prophetess Manto is said to have delivered her oracles — sailors would visit her cave seeking predictions for their journeys. We'll also walk by Giuseppe Berto's house and garden. That a respected writer like Berto chose Capo Vaticano as his home, and wrote of its beauty, lends the place a certain literary cachet. He was also a fierce advocate for preserving the Capo and Calabria's rural architecture, shielding it from the unchecked development of the 1960s and '70s that permanently scarred vast stretches of the Italian coast with concrete.

• Before heading to Tropea, we'll stop briefly at the Giardino degli Dei, a curated park on the Belvedere dei Cannoni filled with shrubs and aromatic plants endemic to the Mediterranean — a veritable Eden overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.

• Tropea was voted Italy's most beautiful village in 2021. Its historic center, with narrow lanes and the faded glamour of once-grand palazzos, perches on a rugged cliffside above the sea. From the center, enjoy great views of the monastery of Santa Maria dell'Isola, perched atop a steep rocky outcrop that was once an island.

• Lunch on your own in Tropea.

• Explore Tropea's historic center or relax at the beach. Be sure to visit the Norman cathedral with its arched cloisters — in one of the side chapels is a Byzantine icon of the Madonna of Romania, said to have protected the town from earthquakes.

• Dinner at Azienda Agricola Costantino in Maida, where the family cultivates olive groves, orchards, citrus groves, and vegetable gardens and raises animals with unwavering commitment to quality and sustainability.