Canolo

This is how the English painter and writer Edward Lear described 'old' Canolo in his Journals of a landscape painter in southern Calabria in 1852: 'Pushed into a nest of pointed rocks just after the vast precipice that closes around the Passo del Mercante'. In fact, the village is located in an enchanting setting between two large canyons and the Pachina stream that passes between the village and the Monte Mutolo Massif, true rock towers of changing colours, and is a must-see destination for climbers, one of the Aspromonte National Park's Geosites of greatest geological and naturalistic value. Its foundation dates back to the Byzantine period but with the flood of 1951 it was depopulated, and the inhabitants had to move to the village of Canolo Nuova at 900 metres above sea level, about 9 km.

Characteristic of the place is l Pane jermano, a special bread, promoted by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, made with 0-km rye flour that is dried in the sun on broom fabric cloths, the so-called 'pezzare', before being milled. The flour produced is kneaded only with sourdough to obtain a very nutritious bread of circular shape and dark golden colour. A tradition kept alive by the  canolesi who today still  bring the forms of bread to bake in the community wood-fired ovens of Canolo Nuova.