Bars, cafés and pastry shops in Cittanova: breakfast, ice cream and the Villa Comunale

Cittanova lies inland in the Piana di Gioia Tauro, on the slopes of the Aspromonte: founded in the seventeenth century as Casalnuovo and renamed Cittanova in 1852, it keeps an old centre laid out radially around the main square. Bar life follows that geometry — you circle the square — and has a second focus in the Villa Comunale, the late-nineteenth-century botanical garden that is the town’s real open-air drawing room. This page gathers the bars, cafés, pastry shops and gelaterie of the centre and of the roads leading towards Taurianova, Polistena and the rest of the Piana.

The selection is drawn from the listings published on the portal: new places may appear, while opening hours, management and offerings change over time. The text therefore stays thematic and helps you choose by area and by time of day, from the first coffee to the aperitivo. For real opening hours, contacts, outdoor seating and accessibility, always open the individual listing.

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• Stefy's Desserts — Stefy's Desserts is located at Via Giovanni Alessio 2, in Cittanova, in an area southwest of the historic centre. Cittanova is the main…
• Sorbara Panificio Pasticceria — On Via Giovanni Amendola in Cittanova, the Sorbara bakery and pastry shop has been rooted in the town since 1920. Since then the founding…
• Bar Megna di Megna Silvio — Cittanova lies at the centre of the Piana di Gioia Tauro, at the foot of the Aspromonte massif. Here, at Via Diomede Marvasi 23, close to…
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• Pasticceria Gangemi — In Cittanova, the centre of the Piana di Gioia Tauro at the foot of the Aspromonte massif, Pasticceria Gangemi is located at Via Roma 5,…
• Bar Pasticceria Deraco — In Cittanova, in the Piana di Gioia Tauro at the foot of the Aspromonte massif, Bar Pasticceria Deraco stands on Via Pier Luigi Nervi, not…

Breakfast at the bar around the square

The centre of Cittanova opens radially around the main square, and the bar day follows that plan: you reach the square, take your coffee at the counter with a cornetto or a pastry, and set off again. It is a quick breakfast, standing up, which in Cittanova never became a sit-down ritual.

The first round belongs to those heading to work and taking their children to school; the second comes mid-morning, when offices and shops in the centre take their break. From May onwards the cappuccino gives way to granita served with a brioche — coffee, almond, lemon, mulberry — which here, where summer is the dry inland kind, works as both breakfast and afternoon snack.

Pastry shops and sweets for the feast days

The pastry shops of Cittanova work to the calendar: at Easter the cuzzupe, shortcrust sweets with a whole egg set into them, which every family orders or bakes at home; at Christmas the petrali filled with dried figs, walnuts and cooked must, alongside nacatole and spiced susumelle. The rest of the year the counter classics remain: cannoli, almond pastries, choux and cakes made to order for birthdays, communions and christenings.

Alongside the pastry shops work the bakeries, which cover the everyday side of sweet baking — dunking biscuits, ring cakes, breakfast pastries. Then there is the Sunday tray of pastries, a habit rooted across Calabria: you stop by before lunch and choose at the counter, one piece at a time, often during the same walk that leads to the square.

The Villa Comunale: ice cream, shade and a walk

The Villa Comunale «Carlo Ruggiero» is Cittanova’s real open-air drawing room: a botanical garden of about two and a half hectares, commissioned in the late nineteenth century by the then mayor Carlo Ruggiero to a design by the Swiss engineer-agronomist Enrico Fehr. The English-style garden has a triangular plan, two avenues crossing in an X and a monumental fountain at the centre, and holds species botanically far removed from one another — among them a white pine thirty-five metres tall, listed among the Great Trees of the Aspromonte.

For the town’s bars this counts for a lot, because the villa is where the walk leads: people arrive with an ice cream in hand, stop in the shade during the hot hours, arrange to meet there in the late afternoon. That is why the gelaterie and cafés of the centre do well outside the classic meal times too, especially from spring onwards.

Summer in the hills: granita, ice cream and the climb to Zomaro

In Cittanova there is no sea to soften the heat, and inland summer has a rhythm of its own: people are out early in the morning and from the late afternoon onwards, while the middle hours are spent in the shade — often under the trees of the villa. The bars follow those hours, and granita with brioche or an ice cream becomes the most natural afternoon stop.

Then there is the card Cittanova can play and other towns of the Piana cannot: Zomaro, the Aspromonte locality at around a thousand metres, some fifteen kilometres of road above the town, inside the National Park. When the air below becomes unbearable, people head up there for the cool. Down in town the habit stays the counter one: iced coffee, granita, ice cream to walk with, and in the evening a centre that lights up again.

Savoury at the bar, hot counter and quick breaks

In Calabrian bars the savoury side counts as much as the sweet. Behind the counter glass you find arancini, panzerotti, small pizzas, rustici, filled pitte and sandwiches with local cured meats and cheeses: this is the quick lunch formula, for people working in the centre, for anyone with a single hour between commitments, or for those passing through Cittanova on their way elsewhere in the Piana.

It is also the most practical way to take something home without cooking, or to put together a snack to eat at the villa. Turnover is fastest between midday and two: if you want to choose without rushing, come earlier.

Families, groups, coeliacs and food intolerances

A bar is also chosen according to who is going. With children Cittanova has an obvious advantage: the Villa Comunale offers space, shade and paths where they can move about, and the nearby venues become the handiest choice. A group needs tables and a counter that moves fast; people at work want reliable hours and a place to stop for a few minutes.

For coeliacs, the lactose intolerant, vegetarians and vegans this guide is not enough on its own: the availability of gluten-free or lactose-free products varies from place to place and over time. Open the listing of the bar or pastry shop, read the specialities indicated and call ahead, especially if you need to order a cake or a tray for an occasion.

Frequently asked questions

Verified on 8/17/2026 · curated by Francesco De Giorgio