(map) 
They call the area ‘the Calabrian Dolomites’. Driving up the long hill you will see the village, in ruins but unspoiled, the kind of place which is fun to explore. You might meet a photographer and his wife from Sicily (a boat ride away). He has 35,000 photos of the place taken over a period of his many years of visiting. For him this is a refuge.
There is a tiny sausage stand, miraculously open in this all but deserted place, where you are likely to be invited to share some sausages and wine in the sun before taking a delightful walk among the ruins.
The legend has it that all the villagers deserted Pentidattilo (Five Fingers) because they were afraid the ‘fist’ (shape of the natural stone towers above it) would close in and crush them all.
Recently, a few places have been inhabited once again, and there was a small tour of archeologists wandering among the pathways. It’s likely just a matter of time before it’s in the tour guides.
- Contributed by Janice Robinson, a painter, currently renovating a house in Sardegna. Her website is janicerobinsonstudio.com
Breathing-taking photos, and this note is fascinating. I would love to see more images…. they all end up as my desktop wallpapers to inspire me while I write! There is a grand story waiting to be told here, and I’d love to learn more about it!
As always – a wonderful note, and such a fabulous way to start the day!!!
Thank you, to GB and Janice Robinson!!!
Con affetto, Denyse
How absolutely gorgeous! Beauty in ruins! An artist’s playground! Thanks for the views!
An abandoned village! Many of the inhabitants emigrated to the new world or to the factories in northern Italy because life was so bleak in Calabria. To exist, a village needed gardens, wheat fields, olive orchards, vineyards. How did the town grow as large as it did in its rocky setting with so little arable land? Haunting, indeed.
Pentidattilo is too beautiful to not be “discovered” one day by artists, poets, writers, etc. Over the last thirty years I’ve seen a couple of partly abandoned villages in the north of Italy be rescued by such creative people. Thank you for the beautiful photos!!!
I sounds incredible! Reminds of our wanderings through Matera – now a world heritage site I believe. Amazing places indeed.
I would like to know the period (dates) this town was first founded;
Pentidattilo has a delicious agriturismo within walking distance from this unusual and beautiful town. Pentidatillo is as beautiful as these pictures show. There is also a very romantic mystery associated with its history, but I will leave that discovery up to the observer who hears it simultaneously with the moment of being there on a picture perfect hot, sun-filled day.