Serrastretta

Serrastretta sits at 840 meters in the Reventino massif of the Sila Piccola foothills, forty kilometers south of Cosenza. The town's name comes from the original settlement, built in a narrow gorge between two ridges, the Serre. Local tradition dates the founding to 1383 and links it to Sephardic Jewish families fleeing the Iberian persecutions of the period, a small community whose presence persisted for centuries in the surrounding frazioni.

The economy was, and partly still is, the chair. Frame in seasoned Reventino beech and oak, seat woven from vuda, a swamp reed worked by hand, the Serrastretta straight-backed chair is sold across Calabria and beyond. Workshops along the Via dei Sediari still produce them.

The town belongs to the Borghi Autentici d'Italia network. Mount Condrò's two-hundred-hectare beech forest, part of the Reventino, begins where the houses end.

From Lamezia / Reggio (SUF), about 48 minutes by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 4h 39m away.

By car from the centre of Salerno 4 hours, Bari 4h 36m or Naples 4h 39m.

Every town within reach of Lamezia / Reggio airport.