Villapiana

Villapiana sits at the northern corner of Cosenza province, where Calabria meets Basilicata, on the first rise above the plain. The hill that holds the historic core on the left bank of the Satanasso stream, was the original nucleus; the Lido and the Scalo stretch along the Ionian below it, so the town reads as three settlements at three elevations rather than one place. The ancient name was Leutermia, kept until the ninth century, when Saracen raids destroyed the settlement and the survivors rebuilt inland as Casalnuovo.

The town took its present name only in 1863. The Jonica railway runs the coast through the Lido and through Villapiana-Torre Cerchiara, the two municipal stations, tying the lower town to the rail line while the old hill core stays apart from it. The territory also holds a Spighe Verdi recognition, alongside its coastal award. What the geography adds up to is a town split lengthwise between an inland hill remembered for a destruction and rebuilding, and a coastal strip that only became legible once the railway and the beach gave it a reason to exist.