Tropea

Legend says Tropea was founded by Hercules on his way back from the Pillars of Hercules, and tombs from the time of the Greek colonies have been found nearby. The name probably comes from a Greek phrase for an alternating wind that blows in from the sea — in the Calabrian dialect "trupìa" still means a sudden summer storm. The town's recorded story begins in the Roman era, when Sextus Pompey defeated Octavian along this coast, and the Romans built a commercial port to the south near today's Santa Domenica.

Its position on a natural terrace above the sea made it important to the Byzantines, who left churches such as the one on the promontory. After a long siege Arab raiders took the town from the Byzantines; the Normans won it back, and under them it prospered, building the cathedral in the 12th century. Prosperity continued under the Aragonese. Noble families built palazzi on the rock, some with great cisterns cut into the stone to store grain from Monte Poro, which was sent down through terracotta pipes to ships moored below. The Jesuits replaced the old Greek-rite cathedral of San Nicola with their own church in the 1590s, and the earthquake of 1905 badly damaged the sanctuary on the rock.

In September 1943 American fighter planes dropped six bombs on the town and none exploded, an escape credited to the Madonna di Romania, the patron; two of the bombs are displayed in the cathedral. Tropea won the title of Borgo dei Borghi on the RAI 3 programme Kilimangiaro in 2021, and it has flown the Blue Flag for clean bathing water since 2020.

The town's calendar follows its saints. The Madonna di Romania is honoured with processions on 27 March and 9 September, Santa Domenica, a martyr born in Tropea, on 6 July, and on 15 August the statue of the Holy Family from the church on the rock goes to sea in procession. On 3 May the feast of the Holy Cross, I tri da' Cruci, ends with a fireworks-filled camel dancing to the drum rhythm of the carica tumbula. Good Friday brings a dusk procession of the dead Christ, and on 21 March a lunch is offered to the devout for the feast of St Joseph.

Tropea has a literary streak out of proportion to its size: it gives its name to a national literary prize, the Premio Letterario Tropea, whose final winner is chosen by the mayors of Calabria's municipalities, and in 2021 residents painted the Scala Letteraria, a stairway of book titles. Every September the Tropea Blues Festival fills the old centre with bands for a week. Television made the town familiar to Italians through the RAI series Gente di mare, filmed here and first broadcast in 2005.

The philosopher Pasquale Galluppi is buried in the cathedral, and the actor Raf Vallone is among the town's notable names. The Giro d'Italia has finished stages here twice, in 2005 and 2011, and the town has a stadium, the Stadio del Sole.

About 5,700 people live in Tropea, according to a 2026 figure, in one of the smallest municipalities in Calabria by area, just 3.66 square kilometres. More than a quarter of residents are over 65, and immigrants, most often from Romania and Ukraine, make up about 7 per cent of the population. Daily life is lived in the upper town on the rock, while the Marina below is given over to the beaches and the port; the hospital and carabinieri barracks are in the newer Campo district.

The economy rests on summer tourism, from early June to the end of September. Many B&Bs occupy palazzi in the historic centre, hotels stand mostly in the newer town, and much of the holiday accommodation is in the villages around it that once belonged to Tropea, among them Parghelia, Drapia, Zambrone and the coast of Capo Vaticano. Tropea is the main centre of the Coast of the Gods, the stretch of shore that runs from Pizzo to Nicotera, and in 2023 it was the most searched-for village in Italy on Google.

Farming remains part of the picture. For many years growing, processing and selling the red onion of Tropea, cultivated along the Tyrrhenian coast between Nicotera and Campora San Giovanni, was one of the most important activities in the area, and shops in town sell produce and crafts from the neighbouring villages, including terracotta and wicker baskets.

The red onion of Tropea, cipolla rossa di Tropea, is the town's emblem. It is sweeter than white onions and is protected as a PGI product, and it appears on pizza, arancini and many other dishes labelled "Tropeana", as well as in jams and preserves sold all over town. The coast around Capo Vaticano is considered to have the ideal climate for growing it. In July the Sagra della Cipolla Rossa di Tropea e del Pesce azzurro pairs it with oily blue fish.

The surrounding villages supply much of the rest of the table. 'Nduja, a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from nearby Spilinga, is made from pork trimmings and fat with sun-dried Calabrian chilli, smoked and aged for months, and is usually spread on bread or eaten with mature cheese. Pecorino from Monte Poro, extra-virgin olive oil, Calabrian chilli pastes, the bomb-shaped "Bomba Calabrese" condiment and local wines fill the shop shelves.

For something sweet, the cafés serve tartufo di Pizzo, created in the seaport a short way up the coast: a ball of chocolate and hazelnut gelato with molten chocolate at its heart, dusted in cocoa, and protected as a PGI product. Drinks lean towards the herbal — Vecchio Amaro del Capo takes its name from nearby Capo Vaticano, liquorice-flavoured liqueurs are made locally, and a local brewery even produces an onion-flavoured beer.