History of Badolato, Torre di Ruggiero and Calabria's Medieval Towns, Calabria, South Italy, Welcome to Torre di Ruggiero and Your Source in Calabria, Medieval City, Calabria, Southern Italy, Culture, Gastronomy, Italian Villas, Time Shares, Calabrian Cuisine, Seaside Villas, PromoMed Srl, InterComm GROUP, Italian Culinary Institutes, The Italian Institute for Advanced Culinary and Pastry Arts, Professional Italian Cuisine, CAST Alimenti, Soverato, Badolato, Torre di Ruggiero, Calabria, Italy, The Mediterranean Dream, Brescia, Italy, Venice, Italy, Italian Haute Cuisine, World Class Culinary Competitions, Culinary World Cup, Fabio Bertoni, Iginio Massari, Pierre Herme

For more information on the history of individual towns, click here and follow the links
The most magical cities in Southern Italy are the recently discovered forgotten cities of Badolato and Torre di Ruggiero, perched above the Ionian Sea, in the heart of historical Calabria

Badolato
Founded by the Duke of Calabria in 1081, when the Normans ruled the peninsula and Robert Giscard was the first Duke of Calabria, Badolato became a familiar stopping off point to the First Crusaders in the 1090s.

Some say that the Knights Templar later used Badolato as a base and the Holy Grail was once here or is still hidden away within the city.

One of the most heroic Norman knights of the Crusades, Bohemond, son of Robert Giscard, embarked from the Coast of Angels (as the area was originally called) and single-handedly helped to storm the walls of the infidels. As a result, he was named the Prince of Antioch.

Throughout the early middle Ages, Badolato grew steadily. Chapels and churches were erected by prominent families. Palazzos lined the streets. A great convent was erected nearby. Eventually 5000 people and many shopkeepers populated the city that appeared like a multi faceted pyramid of houses rising out of the coast line.

Recently the walls of a 13th c. chapel were uncovered, in the shadow of one of the two remaining 12th c. watch towers. As the historians and architects uncover more walls, more treasures are bound to be discovered.

Legends exist even today about the spiritual quality of Badolato, and why thirteen churches and chapels would be built in a walled city by so many prominent families.

There has been long speculation about the extraordinary purity of the water of Badolato, an essential element in any walled city. Even today the spring water attracts people from the local towns who still come here to fill up their water jugs and limoncello amphoras. Could it be holy water? An analysis is underway.

The advantages of Badolato to artists and booklovers, beachcombers and boating enthusiasts is quite apparent -- the Sun and the Moon. Situated 5 minutes by car from the hilltop medieval city is a pristine natural beach, surrounded by trees and a promenade for strollers. The Badolato Marina beach, many miles of it, actually, is a swimmer's paradise; the water being especially transparent and luminous, sometimes violet in the mid day sun. Scuba diving is a popular sport as is fishing and boating. One regular visitor is searching for a Grotto to buy! A yachtsman from Fort Lauderdale, it has long been his dream to bring his boat here and start up a grotto restaurant for his friends. Imagine stepping off your boat and onto the floor of a candlelit restaurant.

Other advantages in Badolato are the conveniences -- stores, bars, and restaurant, the post office, and the bus that arrives hourly and takes passengers to the beach and on to the busy seaside resort of Soverato, spilling over with shops, trattorias, and beach night clubs.

Other residents have secured a house or an apartment with a stunning panorama of the Ionian Sea, hill sides covered with olive trees and fruit groves, and a birds eye view of the beautiful 17th c. convent (a 20 min walk or 5 minute car ride), a place to dine for lunch, as the good nuns prepare a fine table.

One plan on the drawing board is a REAL Renaissance Festival. These weekend events (sometimes month long) in the United States are yearly spectacles attracting hundreds of thousands of people in major cities, such as Houston and Dallas, Texas, Sterling Forest, NY, Georgia, and various parts of California. The phenomenon has generated a popular "Renaissance Magazine." The organizers feel that when readers and followers hear about an authentic medieval city holding an Italian Medieval and Renaissance event, Americans and Europeans alike will come in droves to Badolato.

Badolato's proximity to Sicily (the ferry is 2 hours away) and Greece is quite an asset, and with an international airport and fast trains, travelers can be in Rome and Naples before lunch.

It is our Mediterranean dream that Calabria open a Tourist/Information Office in the US, so that more kindred spirits will join us in la dolce vita in a magical walled city!