What to do between Christmas and New Year's Eve in Calabria

Are you spending the Christmas holidays in Calabria? Have you overdone Christmas lunch with the family and are you looking for a purifying experience in view of the New Year?

There's nothing better than spending a day or two in Calabrian spas and wellness centres that offer ad hoc packages for purifying yourself between Christmas and New Year's Eve, or hiking and trekking in the green woods of national parks and reserves.

There are many open-air activities to do in Calabria to get rid of the festive revelry. Just take a look at the institutional websites of the official nature guides and the Calabrian national and regional parks to discover the excursions best suited to your tastes and training level.

Any ideas? The Pollino National Park, in the province of Cosenza, offers a trail network of great historical and natural value, with a total of no less than 17 marked paths to be followed independently or under the watchful eye of authorised guides. Many of these pass through unmissable villages in the park, where you can stop for a visit: from the Arbëreshë villages to some of The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy.

Not to be outdone are the excursion proposals of the Sila National Park and the Aspromonte National Park: the first one covers an infinite variety of landscapes, including flora, fauna and settlements with different characteristics, grouped within the provinces of Cosenza, Catanzaro and Crotone; the second one, in the province of Reggio Calabria, offers the beauty of panoramic views from the Ionian coast to the Strait and the characteristic UNESCO Geosites.

Other Protected Areas and Paths and Cyclo-Routes in Calabria where you can go hiking and trekking for purification? Here is the complete list:

• Serre Regional Park
• Crati River Mouth Natural Reserve
• Lake Tarsia Nature Reserve
• Valli Cupe Nature Reserve
• Basilian Way
• Way of Saint Francis of Paola
• Kalabria Coast to Coast
• Calabria Trail Italy
• The Brigante Trail
• English Path
• Parks Cycle Route

Another effective way to dispose of holiday dinners and lunches is to carve out a day of wellness and relaxation at one of Calabria's many spas, where you can rely on the purifying treatments offered and the pleasant ritual of saunas, Turkish baths, mud baths and detox massages.

From north to south, the region is spoilt for choice. It is no coincidence that Calabria has been known since ancient times for the presence of its thermal springs and natural curative baths, appreciated by the Greeks and Romans, who left traces of their great thermal baths that can still be visited at the archaeological sites that preserve them.

Here, too, the choice varies according to taste, personal wellness needs, and the most appropriate treatments for purifying oneself during the holidays. By consulting the official websites of the Calabrian spas, it is possible to find the ideal solution:

• Sibarite Thermal Baths
• Spezzano Thermal Baths
• Luigiane Thermal Baths
• Caronte Thermal Baths
• Galatro Thermal Baths
• Antonimia Thermal Baths