Italy
Riviera dei Cedri
Calabrian cliffs grow citrons so prized that rabbis fly in each year to hand-select them.
The citron trees grow on sheltered terraces above the Tyrrhenian, their fruit swollen to melon size, almost all rind and perfume. Each year rabbis arrive to inspect the harvest, choosing flawless cedri for the festival of Sukkot. Most of Italy has yet to discover this coast.
The Riviera dei Cedri runs some eighty kilometres of Calabria's north-west coast, named for the citron grown here since antiquity. The Diamante citron is not a lemon but one of the original citrus fruits, IGP-protected and holy: each summer's end, rabbinical delegations select unblemished fruit to serve as the etrog of Sukkot. Diamante town doubles as an open-air gallery, its old centre painted with scores of murals, while offshore the Isola di Dino hides sea caves entered by small boat. The shoreline between the villages stays strikingly undeveloped, clean water below watchtowers, at a Calabrian pace that resists acceleration.
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Couple
Sea caves by small boat, mural-lined lanes in Diamante and chilli-spiked seafood after dark: Italy's coast before the world arrives.
Family
Shallow clear water, a boat trip to Dino's grottoes and fruit the size of a child's head growing above the beach.
- Rabbinical delegations select flawless Diamante citrons here for Sukkot's etrog each year.
- Diamante's old centre wears more than two hundred murals, an open-air gallery growing since 1981.
- The Isola di Dino's sea caves, Blue Grotto included, open only from the water.
- Much of the shoreline between the villages stays undeveloped, old watchtowers above clean water.
The cedro's thick rind is the treasure, candied, distilled into liqueur or sliced raw with salt.
Pipi chini, peppers stuffed with breadcrumbs and cheese, carry the coast's chilli-forward accent.
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