Have you ever been somewhere and literally had your breath taken away? Like a place you only dreamed about existing, thinking it wasn't possible to be so perfect, and then you finally see it without even really expecting it and just being so utterly blown away?
For me, this place was a tiny beach town in southern Italy called Tropea. It was one of the first trips I took while abroad, but it's taken me so long to write about it because it was just my absolute favorite place and I haven't known how to even describe it, so I'm going to try my best to do it justice. (It's also been hard to write about because it makes me so sad that I can't go back any time soon.)
Getting there was fairly easy from Rome, one long train ride down the coast in a high-speed train, then a connection to a tiny local train. (Our first train actually ended up being delayed and we missed our connection and were stranded in a random town for an hour and a half, but that's not really important to this story.)
The town itself is tiny, filled with cobblestone streets and classic Italian villas, and nearly everything is walking distance. We walked from the tiny train station to our Airbnb, which was instantly one of the coolest places I've ever stayed.
From the outside, the building just looked like a normal home, but once we swung open the big, heavy wooden door we were suddenly in a picturesque, overgrown courtyard that appeared to not have been touched since ancient times. It was enchanting. I felt like I was in a fairy tale.
Our apartment was cozy and had all modern amenities, plus plenty of large windows to look out to the ocean and to our quaint courtyard. Since we had been running late we didn't get to know the apartment just yet and quickly headed for the beach.
What you should know about Tropea is that the main little Italian town part sits on a cliff high above the water. This means incredible views, but also quite a hike to and from the beach. We, of course, just treated the endless stone staircase as yet another photo spot, and stopped every few minutes to truly gape at the beauty around us.
The beach's sand was not the fine, soft feel that most are used to; instead, it was tiny pebbles, which, yes, you could argue is basically what sand is too but these pebbles were big enough to cause small amounts of pain if walked on for too long.
I didn't care about the semi-painful sand or the fact that the water was definitely too cold for jumping into in the later hours of the afternoon because I had found paradise. The cliffs rose towering out of the sea, making the crystal clear water look even more spectacular as the tiny waves crashed onto the pebble shore.
We ventured towards a cliff at one end of the beach and scaled the side of it to get to a ledge a few feet up. Once we were on the ledge, we realized that there was a staircase carved into the rock that led down into a little cave that looked like it was straight out of that Australian TV show about Mermaids called H2O. I felt like it actually couldn't be real, and I feel like no amount of describing it will ever relay the almost magical feeling I had while exploring it.
After crawling back out of the cave, we spent some more time on the beach until the sun really began to set, and then we trekked back up to our apartment to get ready for dinner.
If I haven't explained this already, the way I chose where to eat while traveling was to wander a local area and scour menus to compare prices, make sure it wasn't too touristy, and make sure that if it was claiming to be authentic, it actually was. I'm a big foodie and REFUSE to eat at touristy places, which I'm sure my abroad friends found annoying but I just really didn't want to waste money and calories on a half-decent meal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. (Read more about my tips here.)
Well anyway, instead of looking up somewhere to eat, we wandered through the narrow streets of Tropea until we came across a cute little restaurant serving coastal Italian food, which was just what we had wanted from an Italian beach town! We shared delicious plates of fish, fish pasta, and of course, jugs of wine, and then head back to our apartment once we were full.
The thing about going to the beach in early March is that it's not exactly warm weather, especially once the sun goes down and you aren't lounging on the beach. So, once we got back to our absolutely FRIGID Airbnb, we immediately huddled around the giant space heater and spent the night snuggling in one room with the door closed and heater on to stay warm through the night. We may sound crazy, but to experience the sheer beauty of Tropea it was absolutely worth it to freeze for one night.
The next day we were up nice and early and heading to the beach again, and this time we went straight for this one cliff that towers over the water and has a beautiful church on top, but unfortunately the church was closed during that time of year :(
So, instead, we explored the caves underneath the cliff and saw some of the most breathtaking views. Everything about these caves seemed unreal, like we had walked onto some movie set. These pictures won't even do it justice, but they did it enough justice to make everyone back home insanely jealous at the time.
We moved on over to the sunny beach and enjoyed some tanning time, watching other locals also basking in the nice weather. We watched, fascinated, as a spear fisherman emerged from the water with various forms of sea life hanging from his belt. The squid he had was still moving and wiggling...talk about fresh!
Once again we explored some of the rocky areas along the cliffs and even jumped into the water from the lower ledges. I couldn't believe we had only had a day and a half in this amazing place. I never wanted to leave.
Our train was in the afternoon that Sunday, so we had to cut our beach day a little short to pack up our things and head out. Our picturesque train ride home filled me with those awful "Sunday scaries" while I thought about the little paradise we had found, and reminders of classes and assignments crept in.
Tropea is the type of place you could go your whole life without hearing about, but once you see it for yourself it will be all you ever talk about. I want to go back there for every vacation, for my wedding, for my honeymoon, literally ANY opportunity because it was a perfectly magical beach town where life felt perfectly uninterrupted. In the meantime, I'll be starting a GoFundMe page if anyone wants to donate towards my next trip there ;)
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