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Calabria is 240 km long and reaches its maximum width of 100 km between
Marina di Fuscaldo and Punta Alice, while the minimum width of 34 km is found
between Pizzo and the railroad station of Montauro (Fig. 5). 7 The distance coast-to-coast
is so short here that Aristotle and Strabo calculated the Gulfs of Squillace and Lamezia
were only 160 stadia or half a day’s journey apart. 8 If the region, on one hand, is
extremely narrow in width, the length of its coastline is, on the other hand, truly
remarkable. With 742 km of waterfront, Calabria boasts the most developed coastline in
Italy, corresponding to 16% of the national total – islands excluded. 9 With its elongated
shape, its north-south direction leading to the Strait, and its west-east protrusion
extending into the Ionian Sea towards the East, the major role that Calabria played
throughout its history, as a bridge connecting the two halves of the Mediterranean,
becomes evident. Sailors coming from the Levant, especially from the regions of modern
Turkey and Greece, had to circumnavigate its coasts in order to reach the toe of Italy,
sail past it, and make their course for the Bay of Naples, Sardinia, the metal ores of
Etruria, southern France or Spain. 10
7 Principe 1974, p.8.
8 Arist. Pol.7.1329b; Strabo 6.1.4. See also Gras 1987, 214-5. One Greek stadion is equal to 184.7 m, and
therefore 160 stadia come close (29.5 km) to the 34 km measured at present. (Southern Maryland Online
2008, http://bible.somd.com/weights.shtml). An average walker can cover ca. 5 km / hour by foot.
Therefore, approximately seven hours are needed to go from the Ionian to the Tyrrhenian coast of
Calabria.
9 Principe 1974, p.8, n.9.
10 See Peroni 1994, 832-79 and Marino 1995, 241-52 for the latest discoveries of Mycenaean pottery in
Calabria.
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