Carved by nature into the rocks beneath the Santuario, it’s easy to miss this hidden little grotto and the small, secluded area of sand reserved for those in those in the know. A lot of businesses completely shut down during the winter months and you might have trouble finding places to stay and eat.

12 Pasta Recipes from Calabria. – The Pasta Project 12 Pasta Recipes from Calabria. – The Pasta Project

Tropeas grow really well here in Tassie ~ they require a photoperiod of increasing daylight to trigger them to bulb.

Federica and Marco are lovely people and we enjoyed getting to know them and try all of their family’s delicious product. I’ve tried a couple of recipes from this book this summer, but my favorite hands down has been this Tropea Onion Jam.

Pasta with Tropea Onions and Lardo alla Toranese Pasta with Tropea Onions and Lardo alla Toranese

If looking to fly in, you may find more options by arriving into Napoli or Salerno airports, then jumping on a train or picking up your rental car there (that's what we did). Their Tropea onions are so good, one of the dishes was simply a chopped up Tropea onion that marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, and salt for a few minutes, then was ready to eat. Tropea onions are versatile and have a pleasant taste, whether eaten fresh in a salad, preserved in vinegar or oil, or cooked in a myriad of ways. Onion seed takes a month to germinate at 40 degrees, but only 2 weeks at 50 degrees, so you don't necessarily lose much time by waiting until the soil has warmed up a little. The Details // Self-drive boat rentals are offered for the half-day (9am-1pm / 2pm-6pm) or full-day (9am-6pm).Drivetime is 4 hours from Salerno and 5 hours from Napoli, but we don’t think you should be driving straight down to Tropea from those two. While Tropea is phenomenally popular with Italian travelers, and decently popular with European travelers, it’s very seldom visited by North Americans. When talking about the Tropea onion, experts borrow from the vocabulary of vintners to describe the environmental factors that distinguish this particular root vegetable. We enjoyed ours from Lido Antares, right on the beach, who had several different options on the menu. If you’re not able to find a direct ferry transfer, I recommend taking the train to Reggio Calabria, ferry to Messina, then ferry to any of the Aeolian Islands.

Tropea Red Onions - Delicious Italy

However, I think the best would be white onions with a fairly pungent, but not overwhelming, flavour. You'll find several lidos and beach restaurants on entry from the main car park, but the beach then narrows down quite a lot due to the rocks and entranceways in front of the Marina Del Convento Camper Van Station. Although Italians would traditionally eat this pasta bake as a first course (primo), it’s so loaded with delicious local foods and ingredients that it makes a substantial main course too.In Calabria and most of Southern Italy, vegetable based pasta dishes are especially popular in summer, when the heat makes eating heavier meat sauces less appetizing. However, the ones grown closest to the sea are particularly sweet because of the sandy soil and mild climate. I highly recommend staying within the old town, as Tropea’s beach resorts tend to be of a lower caliber than other beach destinations in the country. A pretty clifftop town on the west coast of this lesser-visited southern region, perched 150 metres above the irresistible blues of the Tyrrhenian Sea and overlooking a perfect pair of spiagge, just a glimpse is enough to make one's soul yearn for an Italian summer.