Varapodio: the village between the Plain of Gioia Tauro and the Aspromonte

Varapodio sits exactly on the edge. Its territory runs from 48 metres at its lowest point to 1,074 at its highest, within little more than twenty-nine square kilometres: it is one of the thirty-three municipalities of the Plain of Gioia Tauro and at the same time one of the thirty-seven of the Aspromonte National Park. The built-up centre, just above two hundred and thirty metres, stands where the Calabrò stream flows into the river Marro, on the northern spurs of the mountain.

The village of today, however, is not where it was born. The original settlement stood at a place called Il Salvatore, about three kilometres away, and the move to the present site began around 1600; the name too, before settling into Varapodio at the start of the nineteenth century, had passed through Marrapodi, Barapodi, Baropedium and Varapodi. What you find today is a compact centre strung along via Umberto I, the olive and citrus country climbing towards the mountain and, in piazza San Nicola, the fountain everyone calls the Asso di Coppe.

Where the plain ends and the Aspromonte begins

The figure that explains Varapodio is the difference in height: twenty-nine square kilometres running from 48 metres at the lowest point to 1,074 at the highest. The built-up centre sits at about two hundred and thirty metres, exactly in the band where the citrus plain ends and the hills begin to turn into mountain. Belonging to both worlds — one of the municipalities of the Plain of Gioia Tauro, the second largest plain in Calabria, and one of the municipalities of the Aspromonte National Park, which gives it a page on its official site — is not an administrative formula: it is a description of what you see when you look up from any street in the village.

The neighbouring municipalities say the same thing: Oppido Mamertina, Terranova Sappo Minulio and Molochio, all leaning on the mountain and facing the plain. The road that holds them together is the SP 1 dir, the former state road 111 dir: it starts at Taurianova, crosses Terranova Sappo Minulio, Varapodio and Oppido Mamertina and joins the former 112 d’Aspromonte in the territory of Santa Cristina d’Aspromonte. Coming from the A2 motorway, you leave at Gioia Tauro or Palmi and then climb inland.

The Calabrò, the Marro and the waters of the valley

Varapodio was born at a crossing of waters. The village stands where the Calabrò stream flows into the river Marro, and the mild climate of this band depends largely on the valley the two watercourses draw between the plain and the first woods. The Marro does not stop here: it belongs to the Marro-Petrace system, which reaches the Tyrrhenian on the stretch of coast between Gioia Tauro and Palmi, and the same watercourse runs past Terranova Sappo Minulio, the neighbouring municipality that lies on its left bank.

That name has left geography and entered the civic vocabulary of the plain. The social cooperative Valle del Marro – Libera Terra, founded in December 2004 and based in Polistena, is named after the river that borders one of the first pieces of land confiscated from the ’ndrangheta and assigned to it, and today farms around a hundred hectares of confiscated property across the plain, from olives and citrus to chilli and aubergines. Its fields are not in Varapodio, but the name it carries comes from the valley that begins around here.

The name and the village that moved

The heritage catalogue record for the old centre lists a sequence of names as long as the history of the village: Marrapodi between the tenth and seventeenth centuries, Barapodi in the eleventh, Baropedium between the thirteenth and seventeenth, Varapodi between the seventeenth and eighteenth. The form Varapodio only takes hold at the beginning of the nineteenth century, while in the Greek of Calabria the name remains Marrapòdi. The inhabitants are called varapodiesi.

The place moved too, not just the name. The original settlement stood at a spot called Il Salvatore, about three kilometres from today’s site, and dates back to around the year 951; the move to the present position begins around 1600, and the same record places the formation of the centre you walk through today between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Varapodio became an autonomous municipality by decree of 4 May 1811, number 922, within the Napoleonic administrative reorganisation of the Kingdom of Naples. The territory is classified in seismic zone 1, the highest hazard class: the earthquake of 5 February 1783 had its epicentre in neighbouring Oppido Mamertina and rewrote the urban layout of the whole plain.

Via Umberto I, the two squares and the Asso di Coppe fountain

The old centre stretches along via Umberto I, which links the village’s two squares, piazza San Nicola and piazza Santo Stefano. The heritage record lists its defining features: the wrought-iron balconies of the houses, the ornamental street lamps, the doorway of palazzo Faccioli and the historic fountains dated 1892 and 1893. It is a linear layout, with no isolated monuments to head for: you read it by walking, looking up at the details and down at the fountains on the corners.

The best known is the one on piazza San Nicola, which in Varapodio they call the Asso di Coppe for its likeness to the ace of cups in the Neapolitan deck. The one you see today was unveiled on 17 July 2002: it is carved from a twenty-seven-tonne block of Reggio stone, designed by the architect Santino Fedele and cut by the sculptor Alì Tomar, and it took the place of a similar work that had disappeared about a century earlier. Rebuilding it was a way of putting back in the square something the village remembered and no longer had.

The two squares carry the same names as the two parishes, San Nicola Vescovo and Santo Stefano, which belong to the diocese of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi. The parish church of San Nicola, at via San Nicola 1, was built between 1927 and 1929 and is catalogued as a work of Eclecticism. The patron saint is San Nicola and his feast falls on 6 December; the rest of the calendar runs through Saint Joseph on 19 March, while the Madonna del Carmine and the Madonna del Rosario remain among the village’s most heartfelt Marian devotions.

The olive tree above the mountain: the coat of arms and the countryside

The municipal coat of arms is the exact heraldic summary of the village’s position: an olive tree in its natural colours set above a mountain, with a silver band charged with two six-pointed blue stars, on a blue field. It is a coat of arms without official grant, and perhaps for that reason it says something more direct than an administrative act: of all the things it could have taken as its emblem, Varapodio chose the tree that fills its countryside, and placed it above the mountain.

The economy has remained agricultural — olive oil, citrus, vegetables and fruit — with mostly family-run workshops and a few citrus processing plants. The olive groves are those of the Plain of Gioia Tauro, where the trees reach fifteen or twenty metres and form what Giorgio Bocca described as a silvery roof above the citrus orchards; the dominant cultivars are Ottobratica and Sinopolese, two of the eight prevailing native varieties that the Olio di Calabria IGP specification allows, together making up at least ninety per cent. Here the olive is first of all a landscape: anyone who wants to follow the pressing and the oil season will find that story on the page devoted to the mills of the plain.

From 4,480 inhabitants to fewer than two thousand

The population curve is the counter-melody to everything else. In 1951 Varapodio counted 4,480 inhabitants, its historic peak; at the 2021 census there were 1,997, a loss of about fifty-five per cent in seventy years. The sharpest fall comes at once, between 1951 and 1961, when the village loses almost a quarter of its people, and it repeats between 1981 and 1991 with another drop of over twenty per cent.

Where those families went is written into the town’s twinnings: Cobram, in the Australian state of Victoria, in the Murray region, and Luís Eduardo Magalhães, in the Brazilian state of Bahia. They are the two historic destinations of emigration from Varapodio, and the twinning is how the village put that geography of absence on paper. It is worth knowing before you arrive: a town of two thousand that once held more than twice as many reads differently, street by street.

What to see nearby

The first natural loop heads inland, along the same SP 1 dir. Oppido Mamertina, the neighbouring municipality, is a diocesan seat and still carries the memory of the 1783 earthquake. Going down towards the heart of the plain you reach Cittanova and Taurianova, the two largest towns in the area and the hubs through which almost everything that moves here passes: markets, schools, roads.

In the other direction the road climbs towards the municipalities of the park and towards the Aspromonte proper, with Gambarie as the best-equipped base on the mountain. And going down the valley you reach the sea: the Marro-Petrace system flows out on the stretch of coast between Gioia Tauro and Palmi, exactly where the beaches of the plain begin.

Where to stay: holiday homes on the Costa Viola

Our holiday homes are not in Varapodio: they are on the Costa Viola, between Bagnara Calabra, Scilla and Palmi, on the seaward side of the same system of valleys that comes down from the Aspromonte. From the coast you head inland by leaving the A2 at Gioia Tauro or Palmi and taking the SP 1 dir, the road that runs through the village.

It is a convenient base for anyone who likes to alternate: an inland town in the morning, with the olive groves climbing towards the mountain and the village squares, a beach below the rocky coast in the afternoon. Booking with us gives you a real foothold by the sea, with the plain and its towns within driving distance, and no need to change accommodation halfway through the holiday.

Frequently asked questions about Varapodio

Where is Varapodio?
It is a municipality in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria, on the northern spurs of the Aspromonte and on the edge of the Plain of Gioia Tauro; the built-up centre stands at a little over two hundred and thirty metres, where the Calabrò stream flows into the river Marro.

Is Varapodio part of the Aspromonte National Park?
Yes, it is one of the park’s thirty-seven municipalities and at the same time one of the thirty-three municipalities of the Plain of Gioia Tauro: its territory ranges from 48 to 1,074 metres.

Where does the name Varapodio come from?
The documented historic names are Marrapodi, Barapodi, Baropedium and Varapodi; the form Varapodio takes hold at the beginning of the nineteenth century, while in the Greek of Calabria the village remains Marrapòdi.

Why is the fountain on piazza San Nicola called the Asso di Coppe?
Because of its likeness to the ace of cups in the Neapolitan deck. The present fountain was unveiled on 17 July 2002, carved in Reggio stone to a design by the architect Santino Fedele, and it replaced a similar work that had disappeared about a century earlier.

How do you get to Varapodio?
From the A2 motorway you leave at Gioia Tauro or Palmi and take the SP 1 dir, the former state road 111 dir, which runs from Taurianova through Terranova Sappo Minulio, Varapodio and Oppido Mamertina.