A Culinary Journey Through Calabria and Basilicata Our founder, Jesse Andrews, writes for Appetito about the stretch of southern coast where Italy Vacation Specialists began.
Sea caves, a town of 44 churches and pasta rolled by hand in a family kitchen. This is the Italy that Jesse has called home since 2003, told through its food.
Our Southern Italy, in the Pages of Appetito
A food and travel story from the corner of Italy we know best.
Appetito, a magazine devoted to Italian food and drink, published a travel feature by Jesse Andrews, our CEO and founder, in May 2025. It follows the coast from northern Calabria into Basilicata, two regions most visitors to Italy never reach.
Jesse writes about the Mezzogiorno, the Italian South, as a rhythm more than a place: a land shaped by a hard history, and held together by its cooking, its songs and its feast days.
Castelmezzano, Basilicata
The Mezzogiorno
In the South, lunch is not a break in the day. It is the reason for it.
Praia a Mare, Gateway to Calabria
Black pebble beaches, clear water and the mountains of Pollino National Park dropping straight into the sea.
The story begins in Praia a Mare, the northernmost town on the Calabrian coast and the place where Jesse first arrived in Italy. She describes its quiet old center, the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Grotta set in a vast hillside cave, and uninhabited Dino Island just offshore.
The food is the heart of it: fresh seafood, 'nduja, hand-rolled pasta and lagane e ceci, a pasta with chickpeas. Jesse sends readers to Villa Vecchia, where hosts Antonella and Gaetano Calabresi cook for their guests at home. In her words, it is not a performance, it is a homecoming.
Cosenza, Calabria
At the Table
The best kitchens in Calabria do not have a sign above the door.
Dino Island and the Arch of Arcomagno
A boat, a few sea caves and a beach that can only be reached from the water or by a steep cliff path.
From Praia a Mare the article heads out by private boat around Dino Island, whose name comes from an ancient Greek word for tempest. Its grottoes include the Grotta Azzurra, lit an electric blue, the Grotta del Leone and the Grotta delle Cascate with its stalactites.
Nearby is Arcomagno, a natural stone arch that shelters a small crescent of sand and turquoise water. The day ends back in the kitchen, learning to roll fileja, the signature pasta of Calabria, with Antonella. It is the same experience we offer on our Calabria escorted cooking holiday.
Dino Island, off Praia a Mare
In Her Words
“Every meal tells a story.”
Maratea, the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian
Twenty minutes up the coast, Calabria gives way to Basilicata and the town of 44 churches.
Maratea is all narrow lanes, stone chapels and balconies full of geraniums, with a white marble statue of Christ the Redeemer watching from Mount San Biagio. Its 32 kilometers of coast are the only place Basilicata touches the Tyrrhenian Sea, and they remain wilder and far quieter than the Amalfi Coast to the north.
Jesse points to the Grotta delle Meraviglie, the seaside hamlets of Fiumicello and Acquafredda, and trattorias serving grilled octopus, local anchovies and caciocavallo cheese. If this is the Italy you want to taste, tell us what you have in mind and we will build the trip around you.
Maratea, the town of 44 churches