Country life – 12 hours with the farmer.

Riding and cooking courses * Trekking * Mountain bike * Food tasting

“Open Farms in Sila” is an organized tour into Farms located inside Sila National Park territory. Visitors can spend a whole day doing all the typical activity of the country life, from milking to cheese making, surrounded by cows and sheep.
Cooking courses, sausages and cheese tasting and guides to visit farms are on hand of visitors every day. Hotels, B&B, typical Restaurants, tourist guides of the National Park are gathered in “Open Farms” glad to entertain visitors. This initiative started two years ago, and we are confident that it would be an opportunity for everybody, in particular for tourists, because of the fascinating experience of a day like a farmer and because of the typical tasty food. Moreover, it represents a business both for the many interesting places to visit (Sila National Park), and for the greetings of the people living in the farm. The possibility to spend “12 hours with the farmer” is a special initiative, making a simple holiday a unique and unforgettable experience.

ACTIVITES

Visit to the farm animals
Milking, spinning of mozzarella and cheese making
Cheese and sausages tasting
Cooking courses

12 HOURS WITH the FARMER

It is the dream of all workers to stay in the open air, in contact with nature and animals … but above all, after a day-long activity there will be the satisfaction to see the materialization of a product made with your own hands … that’s the farmer’s job!
A whole day … from sunrise to sunset working and living lake an actual farmer!!!
It starts with milking, followed by milk making, feeding animals and taking them to the pasture.

CALABRIAN COOKING COURSES

In the farm it is possible to practice the typical Calabria cooking.
One-day (or more days) lessons are available, in order to make the Calabrian gastronomic culture known, always ready to catch newness and recovering old recipes. The cooking lessons are useful to learn how to cook vegetables, pasta, cheeses, sausages and all tricks to make tasty recipes using only simple and nourishing elements, always in accordance with ancient traditions. The dishes which are prepared every day, together with good typical and local wines, will be the lunch for the participants to “12 hours with the farmer”!
A funny way to know, learn and familiarize … with the country life.

WHERE WE ARE…
and WHAT WE OFFER…

“Open Farms in Sila” are surrounded by Sila National Park. Sila is a plateau located in the northern area of Calabria Region spreading, for a total of about 150.000 hectares, between the provinces of Cosenza, Crotone and Catanzaro. Here you can find the oldest National Park of Calabria, among the first five national parks founded in Italy. Its Greek name is “hyle”, in Latin “silva”: thus, the root of the name Sila means forest. It’s about a mountainous area which is classed in Sila Greca, Sila Grande and Sila Piccola. There are no ideal periods to visit Sila: it is always charming to admire a very resourceful territory. During summer and in autumn, you can do walking tours, made possible thanks to a thick net of well marked paths; in the woods, you can pick up mushrooms (particularly rare) and smelling wild berries. In many locations, you can hire mountain-bikes in order to face, in the saddle, paths and cattle-tracks, and you can also do many sport activities. From the riding schools, you can venture on horseback into the forest, and you can do more-days trekking. Moreover, Sila is one of the best delights of southern Italy, where you can practice winter sports since it is well equipped with many ski facilities: cableways, chair and ski lifts leading to beautiful downhill tracks, and suggestive cross-country skiing tracks untie in the wonderful landscape made up of thick beech and pine woods. For those who love speed, it is possible to have fun on equipped bob tracks.

HOW TO GET THERE

The central position of Sila National Park, in comparison with the regional morphology, makes it easy to be reached by car, both if you come from the Ionian area, covering the national road 106 and from the Tyrrhenian one, covering the national road 18. However, in both cases, the highway A3, with its gates for Rogliano, Altilia Grimaldi and Lamezia Terme in the south, is the primary axe on which you can address your choices if the travel would be very long. Ferrovie dello Stato [Italian State Railways] offer a wide range of choices to reach the National Park by train. Paola, Lamezia Terme, Catanzaro and Crotone have the main railway stations from which you can leave for Sila, taking later the narrow-gauge train of Ferrovie della Calabria [Calabrian Railways] Cosenza-Catanzaro and vice-versa. Another way, covered by steam engine – Camigliatello, San Giovanni in Fiore, Camigliatello – is always ready to meet the pleasure to travel by vintage coaches.
In the summertime, from the Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts, buses daily leave for Sila.
Those of you who prefer to fly, in less than two hours from Milan and Turin, and lesser if you leave from Rome and Bologna, direct flights can get the two airports nearer to Sila, that of Lamezia Terme, on the Tyrrhenian side, and that of Crotone S. Anna on the Ionian side. Alitalia, Lufthansa, Volare Web and Ryanair (the main low-cost airline) fly to Lamezia Terme.