We travelled to Catanzaro Lido, Calabria, Italy in 2016. Our 10th anniversary trip. Our US travel…read moreagent, Celtic Tours, Albany, NY, booked us at La Perla Hotel (Best Western). We wanted to hire a driver/translate for a visit to Santa Caterina del Ionio. It is my paternal nonno's home village. The concierge at the hotel arranged for us to meet Francesco Scervino of Fidelio Turismo. Note: this was our first visit to Italy and we knew very little Italian and even less about public or private transportation. This village was one hour south of Catanzaro so we had a scenic drive along the Mare Ionio the whole way. Francesco found the village easily. This was also his first visit here. And was very helpful with our inquiries of the villagers about our ancestors. On our return we asked Francesco for a recommendation for wine tasting & dinner. He told us he would pick us up that evening and drive us there. He took us to Le Delizie della Cascina. What a surprise! Francesco introduced us to the owner at his wine & food store across the street from the restaurant. Unknown to us, Franceso had ordered a five course meal for us, each with it's own wine pairing. The first two courses we each had a plate, not a shared plate. It was excellent but too much. We shared going forward. The salami, cheese, and olives would satisfy anyone. Molto bene. Each course exceeded the previous course. The wines were all excellent. And the staff was very gracious to us Americanos. As more people came in the atmosphere became more festive. Some young people helped us translate our thanks to the owner, his son, and the rest of the staff. And the son gave us a ride back to the hotel. All this excellent was because Francesco listened to what we requested and perfectly matched that with his local knowledge and contacts. Grazie Francesco. Earlier this day he helped us get our train tickets for our next day trip to Naples. He also rushed us to the train station and made sure we caught the train on time. We can't thank you enough. When visiting Calabria we highly recommend Le Delizie della Cascina, Fidelio Turismo and Francesco Servino. Molto Grazie and Arrividerci.
