Italy’s capital defect, said Bonaparte, was her shape – too long for her breadth. Travellers are made aware of it when they head for the deep south. You imagine that you will cross the great north-south divide somewhere around Rome. In fact you cross it 240 km farther on, somewhere around Naples. From Rome to Reggio in the train takes eight hours.

On the autostrada, you can do the trip comfortably in the day. There is something to be said for that approach: much of the country across which the autostrada leaps is stony and arid with awe-inspiring mountains, bordered by a lonely, inhospitable coastline – a landscape to be admired in passing, not to penetrate. And on that long journey there is no obvious half-way house. Except for a small vacationland on the coast around Maratea there are few places to eat or sleep at between the Salerno-Paestum district and Cosenza in Calabria.

The coastal route follows roads which have been greatly improved. Traffic on them is not heavy, but you should allow two-and-a-half days for travelling, plus whatever time you decide to spend in the best places to visit. Several villages on the shore, neglected for centuries, are beginning to see a future for themselves in sub-aqua, water skiing and sailing. You have opportunities, in other villages where perhaps they have not seen foreigners before, of staking out your own private holiday resort.

On the shores of the Bay of Naples classical and modern worlds join hands. Relics of Greek civilization, hardly disturbed, lie in the regions of Calabria and Lucania which they call Magna Graecia, a 2,700-year-old settlement of emigrés from the Hellenic homeland. One such relic is Sybaris, but life in the deep south for the past few centuries has been anything but sybaritic. The cuisine is basic, the wines are indifferent, promising chefs escape to the north as soon as they can.

All in all, though, this region gives you a new perspective on Italy. That said, press on. As Bismarck said to the Prince of Wied when he offered him the throne of Albania: ‘It will always have been an experience.’

TRANSPORT

Package bus tours, guide and accommodation included, are offered between Rome, Naples and Salerno; one to four days. In the far south, Cosenza and Reggio have bus services to neighbouring localities. (The buses can be crowded and it is not advisable to be burdened with too much luggage.) Coastal rail services are very good: even the great expresses from northern Italy and Sicily slow down and stop at every station in Calabria. Narrow-gauge branch lines from coastal stations to the interior surmount impossible gradients.