Away from the crowds in Calabria

Overtourism is now an acute problem in parts of Italy. But the worst-affected spots (Venice; the villages of the Cinque Terre) are easily avoided, and in some parts of Italy you will hardly see any other foreign tourists, said Mark Jones in The Guardian. 

Calabria, for instance, the toe of the Italian boot, is actually undertouristed, so you can be assured of a warm welcome there. Yet it offers glorious mountain landscapes, beautiful beaches, and some ancient hilltowns that are quite as ravishing as those further north. Take Santa Severina, for example, with its Norman fortress, Byzantine church and glorious views. Were it in Tuscany or Puglia, its main square would be "thronged" – but when I visited in early summer, it was delightfully quiet, as was Le Puzelle, a nearby restaurant serving "very Calabrian" fare ("unfussy, cheap and wonderful"). 

Calabria is known as the home of the 'Ndrangheta Mafia, but locals will tell you which towns it dominates, and they tend to be the "drab" ones that no tourist would opt to visit. The list certainly does not include Santa Severina – or Tropea, an elegant seaside town perched high above an exquisite beach (pictured). 

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From there, I drove south, via Capo Vaticano (which offers "epic" views of the volcanic island of Stromboli), to the city of Reggio Calabria. Its archaeology museum houses the Riace bronzes, two warrior statues that are among the very few full-size bronze figures to survive from the ancient Greek world. 

My final stop was the mountainous Pollino National Park, where I stayed at the Locanda del Parco (a charmingly eccentric agriturismo), and visited Morano Calabro – "another hilltop town to make the chianti classes swoon".