Experience Calabria: The Best Local Tours, Festivals & Cultural Events
Discover the best things to do in Calabria, Italy, including local tours, boat trips, food experiences, cultural events, traditional festivals, and authentic ways to experience southern Italy.
7/18/20268 min read
If you're planning a trip to Calabria, you probably already know about the beaches. You may have Tropea on your list, maybe Scilla or Pizzo, and hopefully a few of the smaller towns that make this part of southern Italy so special.
But one of the best ways to experience Calabria is to go beyond simply visiting the places on your itinerary.
Take a boat out on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Spend an evening having dinner inside a historic palazzo. Join a local festival where it feels like the entire town has come out to celebrate. Listen to jazz in a tiny Calabrian mountain village. Learn about the food, traditions, and people who make this region different from anywhere else in Italy.
Calabria is a place you need to experience.
Because I have a home in Scalea and spend quite a bit of time here, I've discovered that some of my favorite experiences aren't necessarily the ones you'll find on the typical Italy itinerary. They're the local events, small tours, festivals, and unexpected evenings that make you feel like you're experiencing the real Calabria.
So, if you're looking for unique things to do in Calabria, here are some tours, local experiences, and cultural events I recommend checking out.
Discover Authentic Calabria with Vera Italia
One of the biggest challenges when planning a trip to Calabria is simply finding information.
Unlike Rome, Florence, or the Amalfi Coast, you can't always type "things to do in Calabria" into Google and immediately find hundreds of organized experiences. So many of the best things happening here are smaller, more local, and sometimes a little harder to discover.
That's why Vera Italia is such a great resource for travelers who want to experience a more authentic side of Calabria.
Vera Italia highlights tours and cultural activities throughout the region, making it easier to discover experiences that connect you with the traditions, food, history, and people of Calabria.
Instead of simply checking another attraction off your list, you can find experiences that allow you to dig a little deeper into what makes this region so special.
Depending on what's available during your visit, you may find food and wine experiences, cultural tours, village visits, local activities, and other ways to explore Calabria beyond the usual tourist trail.
If you're someone who loves finding experiences that feel a little more personal and authentic, Vera Italia is definitely a site to check while planning your trip.
Learn how to make homemade pasta or pastries. Discover the process of making olive oil and sample the goods while you're at it. Wine tasting, tarantella dance classes, milking goats, ceramic work, food, food, and more food experiences! The list goes on and on. Check Vera Italia out and see for yourself all the incredible things they offer!
Enjoy a Pasta-Making Class
Learn the Tarantella Folk Dance
Experience Calabria with a Local: Tours & Experiences with Wilma
Some of the best experiences I've found in Calabria have come through the people I've met here.
My friend Wilma, who is based in Santa Domenica Talao, creates and organizes tours and events that offer a wonderful way to experience this part of Italy from a more local perspective.
Santa Domenica Talao is a small mountain village overlooking the Riviera dei Cedri, not far from my home in Scalea. It's one of those places that many international travelers would probably never discover on their first trip to Calabria, which is exactly why I love it.
The village has beautiful views stretching toward the Tyrrhenian Sea, narrow streets, a lovely piazza, and the slower pace of life that makes these small Calabrian towns so special.
Wilma organizes local tours and experiences in Calabria, but her trips aren't limited to the region. She also creates tours throughout Italy, other countries in Europe, and even places like Dubai, Argentina, Turkey, and more.
Wilma is a wonderful person to connect with if you enjoy traveling with someone who knows how to put together memorable experiences.
Wilma's Contact: +39 342 184 3929
Dinner at Palazzo Campagna in Santa Domenica Talao
One of the special experiences Wilma hosts is dinner at her Palazzo Campagna in Santa Domenica Talao.
And this is exactly the kind of experience I mean when I talk about going beyond the typical tourist version of Italy.
There's something completely different about spending an evening inside a historic palazzo in a small Calabrian village. It's not about rushing from one famous landmark to the next. It's about sitting down, enjoying a meal, meeting people, and experiencing the atmosphere.
These are the evenings you remember. These are the evenings that are dear to my heart.
If you're staying along the Riviera dei Cedri or in nearby Scalea, adding an experience in Santa Domenica Talao is a wonderful way to see a completely different side of Calabria. You can spend the day at the beach and, not long after, find yourself high in the mountains looking down toward the sea.
You will also find Wilma at her charming little restaurant in Santa Domenica Talao called Bistrot Enoteca del Corso.
It feels more like being welcomed into a Calabrian home than going out to a typical restaurant. The space is cozy and intimate, and the menu changes depending on what is fresh and available locally. That means every meal feels a little different, with simple, seasonal dishes made from fresh ingredients and plenty of local flavor.
It’s the kind of place where you can enjoy an authentic dinner, and feel like you’re experiencing Calabria the way locals do.
A Beautiful Sunset View From Palazzo Campagna in Santa Domenica Talao
The Beautiful Little Touches You'll See in Palazzo Campagna
Palazzo Campagna in Santa Domenica Talao
Attend the Santa Domenica Talao Jazz Festival
If you're visiting Calabria during the summer, one event to look out for is the annual International Tyrrhenian Jazz Festival in Santa Domenica Talao at Palazzo Campagna.
Music, warm evenings, people gathering outside, and the atmosphere of a historic Calabrian village—it's a completely different experience from attending a large concert or festival back home.
The International Tyrrhenian Jazz Festival brings live music to Santa Domenica Talao and gives visitors another reason to head up into the mountains and experience the village.
If your trip happens to coincide with the festival, I definitely recommend adding it to your plans. You can contact Wilma for more information about the festival (+39 342 184 3929).
Take a Tortuga Boat Tour from Scalea
One of my absolute favorite ways to experience Calabria is from the water.
In Scalea, Tortuga offers gite ed escursioni in barca—boat trips and excursions that allow you to explore the beautiful coastline of the Riviera dei Cedri from the Tyrrhenian Sea.
And trust me, the coastline looks completely different from a boat.
From the water, you get incredible views of the beaches, rocky coastline, caves, and mountains rising behind the towns.
This is an especially fun experience during the summer when the water is warm and the sea is practically begging you to jump in.
If you're staying in Scalea or anywhere along the Riviera dei Cedri, a boat excursion is one of the experiences I would put at the top of your list.
Here is a link to a one of videos I took during our boat ride.
Tour information: https://www.tortugagiteinbarcascaleaarcomagno.com/
One of the Caves We Visited on the Tortuga Boat Tour
The Crystal Clear Water of the Tyrrhenian Sea
Celebrate Chili Peppers at the Annual Peperoncino Festival in Diamante
Calabria loves peperoncino.
You'll see these little red chili peppers everywhere—hanging in shops, decorating ceramics, sold at markets, and, of course, added to plenty of Calabrian dishes.
So naturally, there's an entire festival dedicated to them.
The annual Peperoncino Festival in Diamante is one of the most popular cultural events in Calabria and typically takes place in September.
For several days, the beautiful coastal town of Diamante becomes even livelier than usual, with food, entertainment, performances, exhibitions, and events celebrating Calabria's famous spicy pepper.
If you love spicy food, this is your festival, but there are plenty of different food options for those who don't like the heat.
Diamante itself is worth visiting. The town is known for the murals covering buildings throughout its historic center, its beautiful seaside promenade, and its location along the Riviera dei Cedri.
The Peperoncino Festival is a fun opportunity to experience the town when it's buzzing with activity and celebrate something that has become such a recognizable part of Calabrian food and culture.
Diamante During the Peperoncino Festival
A Fun Pepper Display at the Peperoncino Festival in Diamante
Discover Your Calabrian Roots with My Bella Vita Travel
For travelers who want a more personalized experience—especially those with family roots in Calabria—My Bella Vita Travel is another wonderful resource.
My Bella Vita Travel is a small tour company that has specialized in Calabria and southern Italy since 2007. They offer private vacations, small-group tours, food and wine experiences, and customized itineraries, but they are particularly well known for their Calabrian heritage tours.
These tours are designed for people who want to go beyond simply visiting their ancestral town. The team can research family history before the trip, visit local records offices, help locate historic documents, and create a personalized day in the village where a traveler’s family once lived. Depending on what can be found, the experience may include seeing an ancestral home, visiting the family church, meeting local officials, or even connecting with relatives who still live in the area.
I especially love the idea of including My Bella Vita Travel in this guide because so many people visiting Calabria are coming here for the same reason I originally did: to better understand where their family came from.
Even if you don’t have Calabrian ancestry, they also create custom tours that focus on the region’s food, wine, historic villages, landscapes, and culture. Their itineraries are ideal for travelers who want someone local to handle the details while still giving them an experience that feels personal rather than like a typical large-group tour.
Website: https://mybellavita.com/
Discovering My Family's Hometown & Church in Grotteria
Calabria Has So Much to Offer
There are plenty of incredible places to see in Calabria.
You should visit the beaches. Explore the gorgeous town of Tropea. Take a boat tour and snorkel in the clear turquois water. Walk through Scilla. Eat tartufo in Pizzo. Visit Reggio Calabria. Drive through the mountain villages. Spend some time along the Riviera dei Cedri.
But don't spend your entire trip checking places off a list.
Book a boat trip. Go to a festival. Have dinner in a palazzo. Listen to jazz in a mountain village. Join a local tour. Eat something you've never heard of.
Calabria is still a place where you can experience a side of Italy that feels authentic and deeply connected to its traditions.
And sometimes the best thing you can do is leave a little empty space in your itinerary.
Because in Calabria, you never know when you might stumble across a festival in a tiny village, hear music coming from the piazza, and end up having one of those perfect Italian nights you couldn't have planned if you tried.
I LOVE Calabria!
Snorkeling in Tropea
