Gerace
Gerace Geography & Climate
Geography
Gerace sits on an isolated spur where the Aspromonte foothills break down towards the Ionian coast, and the site was chosen for exactly one reason.
The rock
The town occupies a flat-topped outcrop of conglomerate and sandstone, with steep faces on almost every side and a single easy approach. From it you can see a long stretch of the Ionian coast and anything moving on it — which was the point, in a period when what came from the sea was Saracen raiders.
The Locride
Below lies the coastal plain of the Locride, a strip of olive, citrus and bergamot between the mountains and the sea, crossed by fiumare: wide stony torrent beds, dry most of the year, that fill within hours when rain falls on the Aspromonte.
The Aspromonte behind
Inland the ground rises quickly into the national park, granite and schist under beech and fir, reaching nearly 2,000 metres within twenty kilometres of the coast.
Erosion
The rock Gerace stands on is not durable. Sections of the spur have collapsed over the centuries, taking buildings with them, and parts of the town on the edges are abandoned for that reason as much as for depopulation.
Bergamot and citrus
The Locride plain shares the bergamot belt with the Reggio coast, and grows oranges, lemons and the local clementines alongside olives. It is the one genuinely productive ground in the area, and the terraces climbing towards Gerace show how far up the slope people once pushed cultivation before the land was abandoned.
The Ionian
The sea here is clear and the coast is shingle and sand, far less developed than the Tyrrhenian side and with none of its traffic.
Climate Patterns
Gerace has a Mediterranean climate modified by altitude, and it is noticeably different from the shore ten kilometres away.
Summer
July and August are hot, with highs usually between 29 and 32°C, but the height and the exposure of the spur mean there is almost always moving air and the nights cool properly. It is a good deal more comfortable than the Locride plain below, where the heat sits.
Winter
Winter is cool and wet rather than cold. January highs run around 11 to 12°C, frost happens, and snow falls occasionally — more often on the Aspromonte behind, which can be white while the coast is green.
Rain
Around 800 millimetres a year, considerably more than the Tyrrhenian coast, concentrated between October and March. The rain arrives hard, the fiumare below fill fast, and roads in the Locride are cut with some regularity.
Spring and autumn
The best of the year, and not close. April to June is green and flowering; September and October are warm, clear and the season of the olive and citrus harvests below.
Wind
The spur is exposed and takes weather from both the sea and the mountains. Winter gales off the Ionian are strong enough to matter, and the same exposure is what keeps the town breathable through a Calabrian August.
Clear air
The view from the castle reaches a long way down the Ionian coast, and on the clearest winter days as far as the mountains of Sicily. Winter is in fact the season for this: the summer haze that sits over the Ionian closes the view down for weeks at a time.