Calabria

Előszó

Calabria is a narrow peninsula extending into the heart ofthe Mediterranean for three hundred kilometefrs, like the abutment of abridge reaching towards the warm shores of Africá'. And Africa's blazing sun blunts the ardour of its rays here, creating a climate more agreeable for a restful visit. The luxuriant vegetation, in fact, is riiade even more splendid by the clear blue sky illuminated by reflected sunlight. All of Calabria is a dream, uncorrupted by the excesses of modernity; there is a fervor in the mechanical, day to day matters of living that reflects a kind of providential respect ttot just for the past but particularly towards those aspects revealing the particular nature of man and things. About four hundreá ^nd fifty miles of level coastline, deep water and occasionally, surprisingly rocky shores, beaches covered with fene, dry sand - very nearly the last stretches of Mediterranean shore for tranquil rest and vacation. There is so much space that overcrowding, or even crowds, is practically an impossibility. There will always be room for everyone here, and everyone will be able to enjoy the serene views of vast olive groves, the scent of the orange trees, bergamots and jasmine. All these elements bring to mind the sea Homer drew for us, a sea we never tire of alsó because the many seaside villages and hamlets lend-it life, and through the distance appear to be creations of somé unknown Artist, and the appearance of an occasional farmer riding his donkey, strangely survived from past eras, lends the whole a poetic aura. The sea, then, the most dominating element in the Region, has colors that change, that are peculiar to certain parts, that are brilliant, and the water is constantly clean and almost perfumed. But if the sea is the greatest wealth Calabria has to offer to the anxious man from the North yearning for relief from endless months of fog or cold, we must alsó invite him to relax wandering among the sloping, almond-covered hills, near entire fields of colored oleander, and where olive trees, that ancient symbol of Virgilian peace and tranquillity, can reach the proportions of an oak, and where centuries-old chestnut woods reveal the force of an ancient nature which, at one time, was the source of wealth and was the livelihood for all. Preferring greater altitudes, Calabria can offer various Vissza