The village from which you can see both the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian Seas
On a hill at about 700 metres, in the narrowest part of the Italian peninsula, the Isthmus of Catanzaro, where only about thirty kilometres separate the two seas, Tiriolo is a village with a unique privilege: from the top of Monte Tiriolo, which rises above it, on clear days you can see at the same time the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia and, on the horizon, the Aeolian Islands and Stromboli, and the Ionian Sea, with the Gulf of Squillace, an extraordinary view that makes it one of the rare places in Italy from which you can embrace both seas with a single glance. On the summit there are the ruins of a Norman castle and the remains of an ancient settlement.
Tiriolo has a very ancient history: in 1640, during work in a field, a bronze tablet was found here with the text of the "Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus", the decree of 186 BC with which the Roman Senate banned the Bacchanalia, the secret rites in honour of Bacchus, a document of great historical importance, now kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The village is also famous for its handicraft traditions, especially the weaving of the "vancali", the colourful shawls woven on hand looms, part of the traditional costume of the women, the "pacchiana", and for the processing of wood and alabaster. The small Antiquarium displays archaeological finds from the area.
Tip: climb Monte Tiriolo on a clear morning to see both seas; look for the vancali woven in the village workshops.
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