There is a Sila that you would not expect, a Sila that manages to surprise also people who thinks of knowing quite well this area. It is a Sila made not just of nature, but of people, art, history and culture.

It is made of medieval coenobies lost in the woods, of ancient garths that the trees have started to reclaim back, and as well of artists that live here but create masterpieces that are then sold in the entire world.

This is the Sila we tried to show to the many journalists from all over Italy that accepted the invitation of Sila National Park to come visit, and the challenge of narrating a territory so vast and complex.

As is tradition the Press Tour 2017 has been organized making it coincide with the sled-dog exhibition held since many years at the skiing resort of Carlomagno, organized by the Cross-Country Ski center of the same name. Yes, because Sila means sport as well…

To try to be able to show as much as possible to the journalists visiting, the Press Tour 2017 has been structured on four – pretty intensive – days. From 24th to 27th of February visits and excursions came one after the other, relentlessly.

The first day has been devoted to visiting “Cupone” Visitor Center, one of the crown jewels of the National Park.

The excursion to the fauna fences gifted us not just with an anthropology and ecological lesson about the economic practices linked to the harvesting of the pitch and to the exploitation of these forests in the past, thanks to our very knowledgeable guide Angelo Abbruzzese, but as well with an exciting encounter with “Mary the roe” – a cub abandoned by its mother last summer after being mistakenly «saved» by a group of excursionists.

The day continued after that with a visit to the Museum of Biodiversity and the Ancient Sawmill, to end, thanks to “Silautentica”, with a food and wine tasting of local products held at “Campanaro”, in Camigliatello Silano.

Well fed and rested, the second day began at the Cross-Country Ski Center “Carlomagno” to assist to a demonstrative run on the snow and to the XXIV edition of the “Gran Fondo”, a non competitive event organized by the CAI Cosenza on snow-shoes and cross-country skis.

The afternoon saw us on the set for a Medieval-themed movie, when we arrived in a San Giovanni in Fiore to admire the “Florense” Abbey only to find it cloaked in the fog and with the church bells ringing softly, and continued with the professor Succurro, Chairman of the “Centro Studi Gioachimiti”, guiding us through the mysteries of Gioacchino’s philosophy.

The “Carpet School” and “Spadafora Jewels”, to discover respectively the textile creations of the master Caruso and the ones of the goldsmith Spadafora, concluded a long day.

The morning of the 26th once again saw protagonist the sport, with a sled-dog demonstration held as always at Carlomagno. The musher Gianni Isabella let the journalists feel the excitement of driving by themselves one of the sleds, pulled by husky dogs.

The afternoon has been dedicated to art and history, as we brought the journalists to see first the Abbey of Saint Mary of the Patirion (a Greek term meaning “of the father”), and then the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis at the Diocesan Museum, both in Rossano.

The last day has seen our guests first engaged along the paths of the “Sila Giants”, in locality Fallistro, a Biogenetic Reserve that preserves specimens of Black Pine of Calabria hundreds of years old and with their trunks achieving a diameter up to 2 meters and an height up to 45 meters.

Then, in Taverna, Sila Piccola, we visited the Monumental Church of Saint Domenico and the Civic Museum, where among other masterpieces we were able to admire several paintings of Mattia Preti, the «Calabrian Knight», one of the most important artists of the ‘600, masterfully explained by our guide Beatrice Marano.

After four days spending many many hours in each other company, our guests not only made friends, but got back to their lives with a much deeper knowledge of our areas, maybe even deeper than many of the locals, and with a new appreciation for a region and a UNESCO MaB Area full of “jewels” not hidden, like people usually says, but just unknown to the vast majority.