Cosenza - old town

View up street towards local secondary school.

On our way south we spent half a day in Cosenza, one of the largest towns in Calabria. I'd visited the town nearly a decade before (see my earlier post HERE) and found its old town rather dark and brooding; perhaps that was because then I arrived late in the day and the shops were closing up. This time we arrived mid-morning on a lovely sunny day. The effect was strikingly different and the old town came across as full of interesting squares, streets and buildings (although to be fair some of the narrow side streets didn't look all that salubrious).

There were few tourists around and so we strolled through the town without having to fight our way along pavements with the usual crush. Indeed there was even time for Mailena to do some clothes shopping (in which I'm happy to report she was successful).


Prices here are low compared to other regions of Italy - yet the quality is still high. We stopped for instance at a cafe for an iced capuccino and ordered some small accompanying cakes (pasticini) to nibble; they were delicious yet the price was a mere 50 cents per cake. Wonderful! We ordered half a dozen more to take away and as ever in Italy they were wrapped up beautifully.

We ate our panini in a lovely park next to a piazza surrounded by exceptional buildings.

Marilena takes the stage in Cosenza's atmospheric theatre.