Pollino and Sila: Calabria’s mountain heart

Route description

Morano Calabro, just off the A2 motorway, is a cone of houses rising to a ruined castle at the edge of the Pollino National Park, Italy’s largest. Take the minor roads east to Civita, an Arbëreshë village where Albanian is still spoken.

From Civita a path leads down to the Devil’s Bridge over the Raganello gorge. After a fatal flash flood in 2018, access to the gorge floor is regulated; the bridge and viewpoints are easy to reach.

Drop to the Ionian coast and climb to Rossano’s old town for the purple Codex in the Diocesan Museum. The road inland to the Sila plateau is long and winding, but it leads into a different landscape of pine forest, lakes and pastures.

Camigliatello Silano is the main village of the Sila, busy with mushroom hunters in autumn; the Giants of the Sila grove lies a few kilometres away. Finish on the SS107 towards Crotone with a detour to Santa Severina’s castle on its rock. Snow is common on the Sila in winter.