The Ionian Foothills

An exciting route among the undulations of the Preserre

From Squillace to Chiaravalle Centrale, the route meanders winding through the hills at the foot of the Calabrian Serre keeping to an average altitude of 500 meters. Looking up, the wooded valleys that converge toward Mount Serralta di San Vito (m 1023). All around, expanses of olive groves, vineyards and citrus orchards. The towns that follow one another-Palermiti, Céntrache, Olivadi, Cenadi, San Vito sullo Ionio-have in common the characteristics of transit centers, a historical event that harks back to the Middle Ages of the Norman counts, and a peasant and forestry custom that is still significant today.

Climbing to the pass between the two sides of the Serre.

From Cenadi rises in hairpin bends the road that reaches the Fossa del Lupo pass (m 878), a gap in the watershed ridge between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas, that is, between the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia. It is precisely the pass, in topical terms, that is the easiest gateway to the northern sector of the Serre, climbing on one side toward the Serralta di San Vito and on the other toward the Covello (m 848) and Contessa (m 881) mountains, facing the Catanzaro isthmus.