Largo Galluppi

Largo Galluppi is the beating heart of Tropea's historic centre, the crossroads where the alleys meet and people stroll beneath the evening lights. The square is named after Pasquale Galluppi (1770-1846), a philosopher born right here in Tropea and one of the most important voices in nineteenth-century Italian thought: a man who taught people to trust their own minds, just as Elena must learn to trust her grandfather's diary. With a pirate's eye, notice how every little street sets off from here like a route drawn on a chart: this is the harbour from which our crew sets sail. Among the sand-coloured houses and flower-laden balconies, Elena leafs through her fisherman grandfather's pages and finds the first drawing of the silver lantern. Legend whispers that Vittorio 'Wave-Hand' Sparano, the corsair turned protector of Tropea's fishermen, once walked these same stones to study the stars and the sea. The old town is best explored on foot, unhurried: Largo Galluppi is the perfect place to get your bearings, a coffee in the shade and then off you go, following the clue upward. The diary invites you to look at the sea from above, where the cannon sleeps.