A perfect slice of Calabria 

The Romans wrote the history, or at least the myths. But long before Romulus murdered Remus, the Mediterranean – the Great Sea – was the principal conduit of civilisation. The Greeks spread their wings across the wine-dark seas, to the extent that even later Romans accepted that much of southern Italy was actually Magna Graecia. The Greek settlements included the city of Sybaris. Although it was destroyed around 2,500 years ago, it has passed into the language. Sybaritic – the very word is expressive – denotes ease and pleasure, the beauties of nature amid the adornments of art and architecture: champagne and dancing girls.

Sybaris is in Calabria, the toe of Italy. In more recent times, history has not been kind to the region. David Gilmour’s superb work, In Pursuit of Italy, helps to explain why. The Risorgimento was not good for the south: too strong a currency. Moreover, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was not nearly as bad a regime as Gladstone and many others believed, while the Piedmontese rulers earned a reputation for beneficence which they were far from deserving. This did not prevent the northerners from patronising their fellow countrymen, then and now. One will be assured that ‘Dopo Roma, Africa’ – or even ‘Dopo Firenze, Africa’. But Calabria holds many delights. Its inhabitants know how to eat and drink. Their cuisine makes the region’s ingredients sing, and they are producing better and better wine.

The evidence for this is easy to come by, in a modest-looking establishment, Il Vicolo, in an alley by St. James’s Street. It had long been a small piece of Calabria – of Sybaris, indeed – magically transported to London. But a couple of years ago, everything was under threat. Lockdown was imminent and the restaurant would have to move. Worst of all, the admirable proprietor, Giacomo, was not well.