Peaceful Pentedattilo
One of my (many) favourite places we visited on our Calabrian trip was the abandoned village of Pentedattilo in the foothills of the Aspromonte region. Most inhabitants left after the 1783 earthquake damaged many of its buildings, only some Greek residents remained living there until the 1908 earthquake, which caused landslides that damaged the rest. It seems that a handful of houses have been restored recently, probably as holiday homes, and some work has been carried out on the narrow streets and footpaths, making it fairly easy to clamber around the main parts. The name comes from the rock formation of what look like fingers... there were 5, but now only 4.
It felt very peaceful the morning we were there, we only saw two other people, leaving, with there big cameras, as we arrived, and a man who has a tiny artisan shop, but he didn't hang around to see if we would buy anything ! (we probably would have done !) as he closed up whilst we were wondering around the village. The sun was shining, and the lush green spring vegetation and wild flowers were buzzing with the sound of bees everywhere, otherwise the only sound was distant barking dogs in the valley below. There are wonderfully panoramic views over the Ionian Sea.
In 1686, at Easter, a son of a noble family massacred all the members of another ruling family, over objections to a marriage, in one of the houses, and the locals believe that it's the sound of the marquis crying out in anger over his lost family and lands when the wind roars through the valley in bad weather.
As we were leaving I spotted this "carving" on a rock......... a sign for UFOs, Dr Who, Flash Gordon ??......... Spooky !
