After visiting Fiumefreddo, we drove a little further down the Calabrian coast until we reached the town of Amantea. The town is rather large, about 14,000 and the new part is quite a bustling place, full of shops, restaurants, bars, noise, traffic and chaos! It is a popular tourist spot for Italians and foreigners alike and picturesque as it's built into the cliff with the new town based at the bottom, slowly working it's way up, and the old, ancient town being situated at the top. 
Amantea was a very important town, held in high esteem by the Arabs who used this town as a strong-hold, thus the origins of the name. Amantea is of Arabic origin meaning strong hold.
We drove up as far as possible. Once you reach the entrance to the old town you either have to walk up the street, cobbled streets, or enter on a scooter. Not having the latter, we used our feet but my 29 week pregnant feet could not make it all the way to the very top where the ruins of the castle lies. Just as well since it wasn't our day for visiting castles, like the one in Fiumefreddo, this one too was closed for work. Not to matter as I had visited the castle a few years before!
After visiting the old town we drove down to the Amantea beach where we had lunch, enjoying the strangely warm weather. Even my belly liked the beach!
1 comment:
I love these little towns. I wish I had more time to visit them all.
Hope your pregnancy is going well!
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