MY EXPERIENCE
MY EXPERIENCE aims to promote experiential tourism in an area that seems to have been made to be told, the millenary cradle of Greek civilisation, inhabited over the centuries also by other great civilisations that have made it a land rich in traditions, rituals, music, food, and a feeling that is that of hospitable hospitality, the PHILOXENIA, matured over the centuries and come down to the present day.
ENOGASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCES range from knowledge to experimentation with ancient local ingredients such as flour, oil, tomatoes, goat and sheep's milk, goat and pork.
Simple products such as flour with which to make maccharuni, typical home-made pasta and cuddhuredde doughnuts, first boiled and then baked
But also zippole, fritters made of flour water and anchovies fried in hot oil.....
..and lestopitte, disks of dough similar to the Greek pita, fried in plenty of oil and then eaten as they are, stuffed with typical local products (capicollo, cheese, peperonata...)
And with the fruits, vegetables, wild herbs, and medicinal herbs, prepare provisions for the winter, such as figs dried in the sun . Knowledge and wisdom at the basis of a simple rural cuisine made with the seasonal products that the land generously offered.
CULTURAL EXPERIENCES seek to understand the history of a community, that of the Greeks of Calabria, which has tenaciously sought to exist and preserve its language and religion. And that, despite having been mortified over the centuries and deprived of its identity, has been able to resist by creating, sometimes unconsciously, cultural syncretisms that have saved it from oblivion and allowed it to hand down unique rites, traditions, music, dances and ancient festivals.
NATURALISTIC EXPERIENCES, walks and trekking in respect of environmental sustainability are enriched by the biodiversity of the Greek Aspromonte, the geosites of the Unesco Geopark, an area made up of mountains and plains, peaks and hills, Mediterranean maquis and torrents in a kaleidoscope of colours, scents and landscapes, where the sky and the sea are never the same from one day to the next... Ancestral energies energise the mind and help us understand how heroic it was to live in these places suspended between sky and sea, and also how difficult it is to part with them.
MY EXPERIENCE for the naturalistic part has Pietro Romeo an excellent storyteller and guide who has loved his territory since he was born there, and is an Official Guide of the Aspromonte National Park and an AIGAE Official Guide.
Aspromonte has been his privileged place of work for 40 years as a forestry worker for Calabria Verde. He discovered it every day, dazzled by its wild beauty, its breathtaking views, its dense woods penetrated only by rays of intense light. He has known its most inaccessible places, met the animals that live there, admired the colours of the flowers that grow there. He has walked its paths, drunk at its crystal-clear springs, eaten its fruits, rested in the shade of its majestic trees. He planted oaks, cherry trees, chestnut trees, grafted pear trees and wild apple trees so that people and animals could eat its fruit. He cleaned streams, paths, undergrowth, picnic areas....
And once he has retired, he has continued to bring this majestic mountain to life, proposing excursions and nature walks to the guests of Bova's B&Bs, destinations designed and built to meet specific needs, demanding or simple, suitable for trained hikers, but also for those who are not, such as families with children....
He walks and talks about the nature in which he lives, with its ancestral beauty. He tells the story of the Greeks of Calabria and their impervious but accessible land, of the ancient villages located on rocky summits, to protect themselves from enemies from the sea. It explains the unique biodiversity of the Aspromonte Park, the geology that has counted it among the UNESCO Geoparks since 2021, the ancient traditions, music and rituals of the Greeks of Calabria, the cultural identity of a people, closely linked to their habitat with Mount Etna and Pentidattilo on the horizon, who have always lived in peace with their mountain, a source of sustenance and life.
