As it's organized, Calabria seems to want to isolate places and people. Long roads cutting though void, ramshackle-studded landscapes lead the way to tiny, remote towns. But where a capillary network of physical connections is lacking, an extraordinary network of people has finally begun to make the name of Italy's most mysterious and closed region resonate.
Carla Pacelli, who's based in Milan and runs the Tenute Pacelli organic winery with her family in Malvito in the province of Cosenza, has been coming here since was born. As a child, she vacationed there, while she now returns often for work. She knows that something has changed, and she gives some of the credit to women and young chefs.
“Angela Giardino Campolo lives near me. She is a retired teacher who has created an association to help the community by buying two ambulances and a social bus to facilitate travel in Esaro Pollino, where there are no means of transport and sometimes not even a general practitioner.”
They are aids that change the fate of a place. But Campolo isn't the only one. Female associations have sprung up almost everywhere, such as Opusignum in Locride, where the team has recovered the ancient technique of weaving in silk, linen, and broom stalks. Sila has also become a scenario of female innovation, this time in the agricultural field.
Pacelli explains that biologist Maria Procopio has opened Caseifecio Sant' Anna, where she experiments with new maturations with the milk of her Swiss goats. After their graduations, Francesca and Cristina Cofone have chosen to carry on the family business in Acri, raising wild cows to produce caciocavallo and other types of cheese with happy animals.
“In the Vibo Valentia area (home to Tropea) on the other hand, Ines Romano runs Donna Orsola, a self-sustainable restaurant,” continues Pacelli, an inexhaustible source of discoveries from the mountains to the sea. “Ines has made a precise choice: she grows her own fruit and vegetables, and everything she cannot do, she buys from small producers with an ethical and sustainable supply chain.”
In Calabria, it's a challenge, but she believes in the new generation of chefs, starred and not. Caterina Ceraudo, Nino Rossi, Luca Abruzzino, Emanuele Lecce, Antonio Biafora have teamed up to find the hidden treasures of their generous territory. An example? Wild goat cheeses made by the Sila shepherds.
Cover photo: Santa Maria dell'Isola Monastery in Tropea