What is the first word or thing that comes to your mind when you hear about Tropea? For me, to be honest it was something different and exotic and something that I hadn’t really heard of before. So why not explore something like that! This article will tell you some facts and the places to go and how to get there so go on, have a minute or two and keep on reading!
Tropea is a coastal town in Italy, in the municipality of Vibo Valentia andthe region of Calabria, Italy. It’s about 600 km from Rome. It use to be a fishing village; now turned into a lovely town full of history. It is referred as the pearl of the Tyrrhenian coast and truly is a hidden gem! Tropea is best known for historical sites, beaches and swimming spots not forgetting about red onions! They are specific to Tropea and you can also find a lot of decorations and souvenirs picturing the onions.
The town itself is not that big and you can see all the main places in couple of days. Although if you really want to dive into it and explore what the whole area has to offer, spending two weeks is not a bad idea at all! There are also plenty of great places to visit in the nearby areas what we noticed in the end of our holiday. It’s easy to move around with the train or by car – like we did for one day. I think that was the best way to move around. And I found it quite easy to drive there as well since the traffic is not hectic. Mind you that it’s not allowed to drive in the middle of old town Tropea – you might get a fine for that if entering with a car.
How to get there:
If you are coming from outside of Italy, you might have to travel a bit longer to reach Tropea. Basically you have two options; by train or by air. So what we did is that as we flew from Finland to Rome and then took the night train from Roma Termini to Tropea. We had to change the train once and the journey took about 6 hours and so. There is quite many trains leaving in a day and I would recommend booking the ticket in advance. We noticed the prices going higher as we left it for the last days. You can book the tickets from here: https://www.italiarail.com/
The other option is to take a flight which is faster but little bit more expensive also. You can fly to Lamezia Terme and it is the closest airport to Tropea. From there you still have about an hour train ride to reach the town. Next time visiting this are, I would take the flight to save some time!
Old Town:
Oh what a charming place it is! The old historic centre really has its charm. I just love the atmosphere and oh how lovely sunsets there are! The best place to watch it is just right when you enter the historic centre where you can also see the Santuario di Santa Maria dell’Isola di Tropea which is a medieval church. It’s like time stops right there and you stay in that paused moment, perfect as it is. It is just so unbelievably romantic scenery, just like out of a poem.
Capo Vaticano:
Capo Vaticano is other coastal town nearby Tropea, also in the municipality of Vibo Valentia. You will have amazing scenery overlooking the surroundings and the Grotticelle beach. Since we had the car it was easy to reach there and it took us about 40 minutes to get there since we stopped at couple of other places too along the way.
Beaches:
There are many cute and smaller beaches in and around Tropea. It is worth visiting also Zambrone beach which I heard is beautiful but didn’t get to go there unfortunately! In Tropea there are three beautiful, sandy beaches, offering a variety of activities and beach bars. One of them is Blanca Beach which is a beach bar located right in front of Spiaggia di Tropea.
Restaurants:
One best thing about travelling to Italy is definitely the food! I just crave for Italian food and Tropea certainly did not disappoint at all! Mostly the restaurants are located in the old town and it has such a lovely surroundings to have dinner and lunch outside. So I will give two recommendations for restaurants that we discovered and found to have delicious food. If you are a pizza lover (like me!) there’s a restaurant you should try! It is called Pizzeria Vecchio Forno and it’s located in the historic centre. It has a variety of pizzas and you can really feel the old time charm while enjoying it in the narrow alleys. Note that it mostly serves pizza and a few selections of desserts. Also it is open in the evenings.
The other restaurant is That’s Amore. And the food…. absolutely delicious! It was the perfect way to end the holiday. They have a wider selection of dishes to choose from. The atmosphere is also just so lovely. You can have lunch or dinner since it is open from the morning. We walked in to both of the restaurants and there were five of us. Though it wasn’t yet the peak season, so reservations might be required for a bigger party.
I hope this post inspires you to have a great holiday and maybe to see a bit different side of it! Let me know in the comments below if you have any other travel tips. 🙂
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Great post 🙂
Thank you very much ! 🙂