Tropea sits high on the edge of steep cliffs and is a maze of narrow lanes lined with crumbly pastel coloured houses that lead onto plazas and terraces offering excellent views across the coastline and over to Stromboli.

It's also the place where we stumbled upon 'Geleteria Tonino' and Antonio, the man responsible for creating the softest, stickiest and most delicious ice-cream that we've tasted so far in Italy - worth climbing the hundreds of steps required to reach the town.


Antonio, owner of 'Geleteria Tonino' and winner of many ice-cream competitions

Just like the many Geleterias there's a whole range of flavours to choose from but our experience here was made very special as the owner, Antonio took the time to describe each flavour one by one.... chocolate, pistachio, lemon, rum and raisin, trifle... a decision was certainly going to be difficult as he worked his way to the 50th flavour and what we thought would be the last however he continued, still smiling as he introduced us to his so-called specialities or experimental flavours that of red onion, olive, tuna, spicy salami, pumpkin and squid!! Yikes!

Naturally we stuck to a tub of traditional flavours but a little part of us was niggling to give one of his specialities a try given that he appeared so proud of his creations. Red onion was the chosen ice-cream given that Tropea is famous for its red onions. What can we say, apart from that it tasted exactly as promised, leaving us with distinct 'onion-breath' which lasted for hours! In future we'll stick to the sweet and more familiar flavours!


superb view from the upper terrace looking over the sea and the church of Santa Maria delle'Isola on its rock