Reggio Calabria

Reggio Calabria owns the two most admired men in Italy — and they are bronze. The Riace Bronzes, the fifth-century-BC Greek warriors hauled from the sea in 1972, stand in climate-controlled majesty in the National Archaeological Museum: the supreme surviving originals of Greek bronze sculpture, worth the journey to the strait by themselves, with the museum's Magna Graecia collections around them recalling that this shore was Greek before Rome had a forum.

The city arranges itself along D'Annunzio's compliment: the Lungomare Falcomatà, "the most beautiful kilometre in Italy", promenades under ficus giants between Liberty façades and the sea, Sicily and Etna composing the view across the water — where, on rare charmed days, the Fata Morgana mirage lifts the far coast into the air, the strait performing its own theatre. Rebuilt after the 1908 earthquake, Reggio wears a planned elegance with southern warmth.

Its perfume is agricultural aristocracy: the bergamot, the citrus that flavours Earl Grey and anchors haute parfumerie, thrives almost nowhere but this coast — museum, consortium and groves treat it as the civic treasure it is. Culture's stage is the Teatro Francesco Cilea, named for the province's composer of Adriana Lecouvreur, hosting the opera and concert seasons that keep the strait melodious. Bronze gods, scented groves, a mirage on retainer: Reggio guards the strait in style.