Calabria: Travels in the toe of Italy

Calabria is not a guide to Calabria but rather a book about Calabria. Since 1777, when Henry Swinburne, first travelled in Calabria in search of Magna Gr cia (Calabria's Greek heritage), and then wrote about his experiences, there have been a further dozen travellers, including one woman, who have written travelogues in English (as opposed to travel guides) about Italy's remote toe. Some, like Edward Lear, George Gissing and Norman Douglas, became well-known literary figures in other fields but most were just educated people with time on their hands for whom travelling in the south of Italy was a huge adventure, perhaps fuelled by the adrenalin of the pioneer. What also made them different is that they shared their experiences: frequently with humour, usually with empathy, occasionally with arrogance but always with the curiosity and insight of the traveller, as opposed to the tourist. Until Italian unification (1860), Calabria was part of the Two Sicilies, the largest and wealthiest