Snug village of the Sila Piccola area, birthplace of Mattia Preti, Calabria’s only major painter (the ‘Southern Raphael’), born 1613. A few of his paintings are here, not much to modern tastes. Catanzaro people drive up to Taverna at weekends to buy local wine and collect local spring water, then move on 13 km north to the holiday villages of Mancuso and Racise. The photo shows the wild countryside typical of the area.