Reggio Calabria
Reggio Calabria Geography & Climate
Geography
Reggio occupies a narrow coastal shelf between a mountain range and one of the most consequential straits in the Mediterranean.
The strait
The Strait of Messina is about three kilometres across at its narrowest. Tidal flows between two seas meet in it and produce strong currents and whirlpools — the origin of Scylla and Charybdis, which are a real hydrographic phenomenon rather than a pure invention. Ferries cross constantly and Sicily is close enough to read individual buildings.
The Fata Morgana
In particular atmospheric conditions the Sicilian coast appears stretched, doubled or lifted above the horizon, seen from this shore. The mirage is named after Morgan le Fay and is a genuine optical effect of temperature layering over the water.
Aspromonte
Behind the city the ground rises very steeply to nearly 2,000 metres. The massif is granite and schist, wooded with beech and fir at height, and is a national park. Snow lies on it in winter while the city below stays mild.
Bergamot
The coastal strip south of Reggio produces almost the entire world supply of bergamot. The tree is fussy about climate and does not fruit properly elsewhere; this narrow band of coast is effectively its only commercial ground.
The fiumare
The rivers of this coast are fiumare: wide beds of white stone, bone dry for most of the year, that fill in hours when rain falls on the Aspromonte. They are a defining feature of the Calabrian landscape and a recurring hazard, and they are the reason settlements here sit on ridges rather than beside the water.
Seismic
The strait is a plate boundary and among the most earthquake-prone places in Europe, because the African and European plates are converging here and the whole Calabrian arc is being lifted and twisted as a result.
Climate Patterns
Reggio has one of the warmest climates in mainland Italy, and the mildest winter of any Italian city of its size.
Winter
January highs sit around 16°C, frost is effectively unknown, and the sea moderates everything. Palms and bergamot grow outdoors without protection, and the city is genuinely pleasant to walk in January — an unusual thing to be able to say in Italy.
Summer
July and August are hot, with highs commonly 32 to 34°C and frequent spells above that when the scirocco blows off Africa. Humidity from the strait makes it feel heavier than the reading. The lungomare in the evening is where the city goes.
Wind and current
The strait funnels wind, and the meeting of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian produces strong tidal streams. Both matter for anyone on the water and neither is obvious from shore.
Rain
Around 600 millimetres a year, almost entirely October to March, often as short violent downpours. The steep Aspromonte slopes behind shed water fast, and flash flooding in the fiumare, the wide stony torrent beds, is a recurring hazard.
Seeing Etna
Worth planning for, because it is not guaranteed. Etna is about eighty kilometres away and visible from the lungomare only when the air is clear, which is most reliable after rain, with a northerly wind, and in the months either side of summer. In August haze it can be invisible for weeks.
When to come
April to June and September to November are ideal. Winter is mild and workable; August is hot and the city empties towards the coast.