GHOST TOWNS

In the south of Reggio di Calabria and Aspromonte, several villages have been abandoned as a result of the destruction caused by earthquakes, particularly that of 1908. Furthermore, the arrival of the railway of the littoral in the th century promoted the appearance of new villages, which, having settled on the coast, emptied the villages of the mountains. These sites are called paesi fantasmi, or "ghost villages", and their view on a road gives rise to bitterness mingled with fascination. Pentedattilo was one of those towns, and the most characteristic one, but it is no longer completely abandoned. Pentedattilo means "five fingers," because it appears in the shape of Monte Calvario, with the sandstone rock that appears to wrap it. Like Pentedattilo and Brancaleone, they are sinister villages, almost dead, where only a few elderly or shepherds have not emigrated. And yet, in the 2 000 th century, the homes in the village of Pentedattilo were famous for the honey they produced…