Reggio Calabria

Reggio is the oldest city in Calabria. Greek colonists from Chalcis settled here in 730 or 743 BC on the site of an older settlement called Erythra, "the red", and named their colony Rhegion. Under the tyrant Anaxilas, early in the 5th century BC, Rhegion took Zancle, today's Messina, and controlled both shores of the strait. Dionysius I of Syracuse destroyed it in 387 BC; it recovered, allied with Rome in 282 BC, and kept its Greek language and mint as Rhegium.

Under Byzantine rule it was repeatedly the capital of the Duchy of Calabria and, until the 15th century, one of the most important Greek-rite bishoprics in Italy. The Byzantines brought mulberries and silkworms from Syria, and silk became the city's wealth. Arabs held it at times in the 10th and 11th centuries, the Normans took it for good in 1060. Spanish rule brought heavy taxes, plague and Ottoman raids, and the earthquake of 1783 devastated it.

At dawn on 28 December 1908 an earthquake and a tsunami of up to 12 metres killed an estimated 25,000 people in Reggio, more than a quarter of its population. The city was rebuilt on a grid, was heavily bombed and taken by the British Eighth Army in 1943, and in 1970–71 rose in the Moti di Reggio against the choice of Catanzaro as regional capital. Twenty years of rising 'Ndrangheta crime and urban decay followed; from the 1990s the "Reggio Spring" revived the city, symbolised by the rebuilt seafront. In 2012 the whole city council was dissolved for mafia infiltration, the first time this had happened to a provincial capital.

Reggio calls itself the City of Bronzes, after the Riace warriors, and the City of Bergamot, after the citrus grown almost nowhere else. It is also the city of the Fata Morgana, the mirage that on rare days makes the Sicilian coast seem only a few metres away, with houses, cars and people clearly visible. Its Greek and Byzantine past survives in words of local speech, in religious icons and in some recipes.

The year's great event is the Festa della Madonna della Consolazione, which starts on the second Saturday of September, when the Madonna's image is carried from the Basilica dell'Eremo down Corso Garibaldi to the cathedral and the city celebrates for a week. The Teatro Comunale Francesco Cilea, rebuilt after 1908, and the Liberty-style Politeama Siracusa of 1922 stage music and theatre, and the Villa Genoese Zerbi has hosted Venice Biennale exhibitions.

Reggio has a long line of artists and scholars, from the ancient poet Ibycus to the Futurist Umberto Boccioni and the fashion designer Gianni Versace. The Mediterranea University, founded in 1968, was the first in Calabria, and the city also has a university for foreigners, an academy of fine arts and a conservatory. Football means the Stadio Oreste Granillo and the Derby dello Stretto against Messina, twenty-five minutes away by ferry.

About 168,000 people live in the city, according to a 2025 figure, and some 512,000 in the wider metropolitan area. The municipality stretches for kilometres along the coast, from Catona and Gallico in the north through the centre to Pellaro in the south, and up into the hills; one study of 386 European cities found Reggio had the least green space of all. Ties with Messina, across the strait, are close.

The city lacks an adequate industrial base. Its economy rests on the port and fishing, agriculture and exports — fruit, and above all the essential oil of bergamot, used in the perfume industry — along with small firms that assemble railway carriages and make machinery. The beaches and the museum draw visitors, and the universities bring students to the centre.

Life follows the southern rhythm: shops close for a long break in the middle of the day, and in summer the city comes out after dark to walk the Lungomare and eat gelato on the Corso. The 'Ndrangheta remains a heavy presence in the local economy, and in 2012 the city council was dissolved over infiltration by it.

Reggio's cooking takes from both Naples and Sicily but rests on its own sea and land. Swordfish is cooked Reggio-style or grilled with salmoriglio, and stockfish, piscistoccu, is prepared in several ways. Among the pastas are pasta ca muddhica e chi lici, with breadcrumbs and anchovies, and maccarruni 'i casa with ragù. Antipasti include aubergines preserved in oil, sun-dried tomatoes and crushed olives, and street stalls fry crispellini, small balls of bread stuffed with fish.

Sweets are a point of pride. Granita with cream and brioche is a local speciality, and gelato is taken seriously, with a local flavour called crema reggina and turruni gelatu, an iced nougat; Gelateria Cesare has served gelato in brioche from its kiosk on Piazza Indipendenza since 1918. Christmas brings crispeddhi and petrali, Easter the cuddhuraci and Carnival the pignolata, and almond pastries are made too.

The bergamot, a fragrant citrus the colour of a lime that grows only along this coast, flavours bergotto, a liqueur not unlike limoncello, and its oil scents Earl Grey tea. Other local drinks include piparillo, a chilli liqueur, and gassosa al caffè, a coffee-flavoured soda.