What is Pizzo known for?

Hand-moulded hazelnut and chocolate gelato with a molten heart, IGP since 2007, the first gelato in Europe to earn the mark. Joachim Murat, former King of Naples, was tried and shot here on 13 October 1815 after trying to retake his throne. Seventeenth-century cave church carved into the tuff cliff, filled with life-size tufa figures of biblical scenes.

Pizzo is a comune in the province of Vibo Valentia, Calabria region of Italy, about 109 kilometers from Reggio Calabria.

Calabria · Vibo Valentia

Pizzo

A tuff-cliff town over the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia, where Joachim Murat was shot in 1815 and the tartufo gelato was invented a century later.

109 km / 68 mi

Nearest hub (Reggio Calabria)

8,766

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Why come

Pizzo sits on a tuff promontory rising about 70 meters above the Tyrrhenian, at the northern end of the Costa degli Dei. The fortress on the headland, Castello Aragonese, is more often called the Castello Murat: Joachim Murat, brother-in-law of Napoleon and former King of Naples, landed here in October 1815 hoping to retake his throne, was captured by townspeople, court-martialled in the castle and shot in its main hall on October 13. The other thing Pizzo is known for is the tartufo, a hazelnut and chocolate gelato moulded by hand in the form of a hemisphere with a molten chocolate centre, dusted with cocoa. It was developed by local gelato-makers in the twentieth century and was the first gelato in Europe to receive IGP status, in 2007. The cliff-edge Piazza della Repubblica is where both stories meet on summer evenings.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello Aragonese (Murat)
Fifteenth-century fortress on the headland, the site of Joachim Murat's 1815 trial and execution, now a museum to the Napoleonic king.
Chiesa di Piedigrotta
Cave church carved into the tuff cliff north of town in the seventeenth century, filled with full-size tufa statues of biblical scenes.
Piazza della Repubblica
Cliff-edge piazza with cafés and gelaterie, the social centre of the town and the place to eat tartufo in summer.
Chiesa Matrice di San Giorgio
Sixteenth-century mother church, holds the tomb of Joachim Murat in a side chapel.
Spiaggia della Marinella
Main town beach below the cliff, with views back up to the castle and the promontory above.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through September is the working season. Water warms by late May, the gelaterie around Piazza della Repubblica run from morning to past midnight in July and August, and the town fills with weekenders from Vibo Valentia and Cosenza. June and September are the calmer bathing months. October and April are mild and good for the Piedigrotta cave church and the castle without queues. November through March is the off-season: the Tyrrhenian wind cuts across the promontory, the beach establishments close, and the town settles back to its 8,700 residents and the year-round work of making tartufo for export.