Catanzaro, Beautiful Bridge

As we approached Catanzaro there was a long bridge that crossed a deep valley right at the edge of the city. From a distance Catanzaro looked interesting, however the police had set up a detour and directed traffic in the opposite direction, so we never did get the chance to visit in the center of Catanzaro.

At the edge of town there was a clothing store with the name, in English, “Idea Jeans.” We have seen other stores and restaurants in Italy with names like “Bambi,” “Spartacus,” “Mary Poppins,” “Pop Corn,” “Chewing Gum, Chewing Gum” and “The Best of Video Games.” We wonder if those names are selected because they sound good in Italian, is there some marketing reason for that name, or was the name selected just for fun.

To quote one of the hundreds of thousands of Google “hits” for Catanzaro, “All the year is adapted in order to visit the province: in autumn when the forests of faggi are dyed of red, in winter when the wide pastures are covered of snow, and in the primaverile-summery period when the coast is illuminated from a phosphorescent sea.”

Called "little Switzerland," the nearby Sila Massif (mountains) offer some of southern Italy's best hiking, fishing, and camping. It’s hard to imagine, but this far south, and sticking way out into the Mediterranean Sea, until March or April this is a winter sports center.