Cosenza Events

Cosenza's calendar is a city calendar rather than a festival one, with the mountains supplying the seasons.

Autumn on the Sila

From September to November the plateau villages run mushroom and chestnut festivals in succession, and the beech woods turn. This is the real calendar of the province and almost none of it is advertised beyond it.

Holy Week

Processions through the stepped lanes of the old town, which suit them unusually well — the route climbs, and the confraternities carry uphill. It is one of the few occasions in the year when the centro storico is full of people who live in the city rather than visiting it.

Summer in the centro storico

Concerts, open-air theatre and film in the squares and the restored castle through July and August, which is the one period the old town is reliably full of people after dark.

The Sila train

The narrow-gauge line up to the plateau runs steam and vintage services in season, climbing from the valley into the pine forest. It is a slow, deliberate piece of tourism in a province that has very little of it, and it is the one way to reach the Sila without a car.

Christmas

Lights and markets along Corso Mazzini, and nativity scenes in the old town churches.

Winter on the plateau

Ski season at Camigliatello and Lorica, from roughly December to March depending on the snow — small resorts, cheap, and used almost entirely by Calabrians. That it is possible to ski in Calabria at all is the thing that most surprises people from outside the region.