The town of murals and chilli peppers on the Riviera dei Cedri
On the Riviera dei Cedri, the stretch of Tyrrhenian coast in northern Calabria named after the citron (cedro) that grows here, Diamante is a lively seaside town known as the "city of murals". It all began in 1981, when the painter Nani Razetti invited a group of artists from all over Italy and abroad to paint the walls of the houses of the old fishermen's quarter; since then, the initiative has been repeated many times, and today the lanes of the old town are decorated with more than 150 murals, of very different styles and subjects, from portraits to landscapes, from scenes of local life to abstract works and poems, which transform a walk through the town into a visit to an open-air gallery.
Diamante is also the capital of the peperoncino, the hot chilli pepper that is the symbol of Calabrian cuisine: every year, in September, the town hosts the Peperoncino Festival, organised by the Accademia Italiana del Peperoncino, with stalls, tastings, shows and even a chilli-eating contest. In the shops, you can buy the "'nduja", the spicy spreadable salami of Spilinga, the "bomba calabrese" and many other products based on chilli. The town has a beautiful seafront promenade, with beaches of dark sand and pebbles, and, along the coast, the Riviera dei Cedri offers other places to discover, such as the island of Cirella, the medieval village of Belvedere Marittimo and Santa Maria del Cedro, with its citron groves.
Tip: wander the lanes of the old town in search of the murals; come in September for the Peperoncino Festival.
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