Let's SEA the difference.

A coastline running for more than 450 miles, with features and forms that can vary and totally change in the blink of an eye. A luxuriant nature and myriads of sites and monuments preserving history and traditions dating back to thousands of years ago. This is Calabria. The countryside, the mountains and, most of all, the sea. 

The sea, here, can really meet everyone’s needs – it’s almost a ‘customized’ sea. A wonderful natural resource which – it must be said – has been heavily spoiled in recent years, due to inactivity and indifference. But now it’s time for a new vision, it’s time to go beyond selfishness and recover what has been lost. It’s time to SEA the difference! And I’d like to share this feeling, share my own experience and appreciation of the sea of Calabria. I’m not going to tell you about the famous white shores of the Costa Viola, not about the Alto Tirreno coast in the province of Cosenza either, not even about the stretch of water which is bordered by the land of Squillace. 

All of the above would be thoroughly banal. If you want to SEA the difference you will have to visit the unknown shores, way far from the noisy beachgoers who hang out at overbooked resorts. There’s lots of nice beaches, coves and bays in Calabria, and one of them is called Rizzo, about a mile North of Cetraro (Cosenza), on the Tyrrhenian coast. The beach (a mixture of sand and small stones) can only be reached by sea, and it’s set between two high rocks on the South side and a group of mountains on the North side.

If you look to the East, just where the sun rises, the shore is kind of protected by a high rocky wall, on top of which – about 100 feet from the ground – there lies a tower – almost a ruin, today – which in the past centuries served as a guard to this wonderful stretch of water. A brook of crystal clear icy water flows down the mountain and, after a 70 feet jump, ends its course on the sand, as if it was a sort of natural outdoor shower. You don’t even need to find shelter other than the shade which is always at hand, a little further away. 

The Rizzo beach is now chosen as a destination by those who wish to sunbathe and swim in a quiet place, reaching the shore by sea with their boats and enjoying an exclusive sight. At Rizzo beach I also had the chance to take pictures of the numerous rocky clefts which surround the bay. Some of them are flooded by water and are rich with colourful and amazing shellfish. Let’s just start from there, let’s share the experience of such places, let’s go and respect them. Let’s take back what belongs to us, let’s SEA the difference!

Elizabeth, Spokane WA (USA)