On the last weekend of March, after a month in Sicily, we set off on our longest crossing to date — four days from Catania to Athens. The ride took us from Italy’s largest island across the bottom of the mainland’s boot, between Greece’s Ionian islands into the port city of Patras and on to Athens. Two and a half thousand years ago ancient Greek would have been spoken from one end to the other.

Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Catania to Athens | Day 1

Catania, view from our Airbnb balcony. Ready to roll.

Catania to Reggio Calabria

We explored the local coastal roads north of Catania on our half day outing to Taormina about a week earlier so this time we hopped right on the autostrada. Taking the much faster E45 would let us reach Messina within less than two hours including all stops. This turned out to be no compromise at all as the autostrada stays close to the coast, just a few hundred meters above the shoreline offering sweeping views of the sea and the surrounding mountains. Along the way we enjoyed a new perspective on both Taormina ahead of us and Etna in our rearview mirrors.

The little that we saw of Messina made a very good impression. The city is nicely laid out along the coast and the Baroque architecture is as grandiose as elsewhere on the island. Would have loved to spend more time exploring, but exiting the highway we directed our bikes straight down toward the ferry. Our next destination was the Italian mainland. 5km across the Straight of Messina was the Calabrian village of Villa San Giovanni.

Aboard the Messina to Villa San Giovanni ferry.

The Italian government recently scrapped plans to build a massive bridge connecting Sicily to the rest of the country here so the crossing still takes 20 minutes rather the theoretical five. With three ferries running in each direction, every hour and 24hrs a day, the crossing poses little challenge to a long distance traveler. To get on the ferry, we drove right up to the ticket booths. Dismount, buy tickets, get back on and continue to the loading area. It took us probably 7 minutes to get from the booths to the rear of the ferry’s cargo dock where we were a part of the last batch of vehicles to get on this particular run.

Dark clouds in pursuit. View of Sicily unhappy with our departure.

When we rolled off the boat in Villa San Giovanni it was about half past eleven. A bit too early for lunch, but we decided to refuel on coffee and cornettos at the nearby capital of Calabria — Reggio Calabria — only 15 minutes ride south from our landing. Shipping is a big part of what goes on in this part of the world so the landscape is rather industrial all the way to the capital. In Reggio we enjoyed the main promenade from a nearby cafe with a good view of our packed bikes. Half an hour later we were on our way back north.

Reggio Calabria to Tropea

The ensuing three plus hours took us on a relatively slow and relaxed ride up Calabria’s Tyrrhenian coast all the way up to the town of Tropea. We picked up the highly recommended highway SS18 which turns into a motorcycle joy ride just above Villa San Giovanni.

The road hugs the shoreline with little to nothing obstructing ocean views and great little towns adding variety to the already fun, twisted path.

The sky was largely overcast and threatening to rain most of the early afternoon so I kept on imagining just how beautiful it would be under a full sun. Then again, this is very much a part of the adventure.

Calabria on the left, Sicily top right.

As with Sardinia before, looking back at Sicily fading from view behind us made us a bit nostalgic. The island has been a treasure trove of adventures. Where Sardinia was Italy at its wildest, Sicily overwhelmed the senses with what the inhabitants added to the landscape — architecture, street life and… cannoli. What we experienced on the island we’ll remember for life.

They say Calabria (left) and Sicily (right) are the same just separated by a sliver of water. The language itself — Calabrese vs Siciliano — is nearly the same across the straits.

About an hour later highway SS18 started heading inland whereas our destination for the day was very much on the coast. To get there we took a sharp left onto SS682, followed by SS36 north before finally heading west on SP23 along the shorelines of Capo Vaticano.

It was mid afternoon and the sun had made a decent comeback. The coast is more livable here than what we saw south along the SS18. There’s no shortage of dramatic rocky coastlines, especially as one approaches Tropea, but now there are also vineyards and olive groves along the way. The overall feeling is more relaxed, flirting with bucolic. Lots of steep and narrow agricultural roads along the way.

We reached Tropea close to 4pm in the afternoon. The town is a bit spread out and unremarkable on the southern end leading us to question our choice at first, but the minute we rode into centro storico our jaws dropped. This is a Calabrian jewel.

Perhaps not as dramatically situated as Taormina — although it, too, sits atop a rocky outcrop overlooking the Mediterranean — the town far surpasses the former in architecture.

We also much preferred its atmosphere. For one, it’s not overrun with tourists. Healthy presence, yes, but not whole crowds.

The architecture is varied and there’s plenty of the beautiful decay we fell in love with in Sicily.

Lots of places to hang your hat as well. We particularly liked one recently opened dungeon where, amidst drinks and snacks, we discovered ‘nduja. The core ingredients may not sound enticing to some — pork meat and pork fat — but this uniquely Calabrian spread took us completely by surprise. If we had room in our luggage, we’d be packing several jars.

Beauty does oblige. Yours truly dons a pair of slacks for the evening.

Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4