Some of the cities in the Calabria region date back to the Magna Grecia era of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., when Greeks created settlements that later would become one with modern-day Italian lands conquered by the Romans. Eventually, Calabria became part of the kingdom of Naples, where it remained until the unification of Italy. The region was one of the poorest in Italy until the 1970s, when improvements in agriculture and tourism slowly began to buttress local economies. Today, a lot of tourists simply pass through Calabria on their way from Naples to the nearby island of Sicily. What those through-travelers miss out on are some lovely beaches, fun ski resorts, and a great deal of Greek history and mythology.

A small, two-runway airport called Reggio Calabria Airport, or sometimes Aeroporto dello Stretto, serves the area if you would prefer to take a flight from Rome or Milan to Calabria instead of a train or bus from elsewhere in Italy, such as Naples. Three airlines operate here: Alitalia, Air Malta, and MyAir. You can get information about them all in English at the airport's website, www.sogas.it.

There is also an airport to the north of Reggio Calabria Airport, due west of Catanzaro, called Lamezia Terme. A new terminal that is expected to be able to serve as many as 3.5 million passengers per year is currently under construction. You can find out the status of that construction, as well as its effects on airlines and timetables, by visiting the airport's official website, www.sacal.it.