All the way down the Mediterranean coast, geological mice have nibbled perfect concave shapes between irregular ribs of rocky cliffs & crags of a huge slab of cheese creating a grater of soft-sandy beaches against gently lapping turquoise waters, backed with shuttered bars & apartments, restaurants & holiday clubs – ghost towns in paradise in April.

Down below us, the beach of silver soft sand glistens in the sun, waving down those who overlook the sea from their newly fashioned villages & hamlets, their renovated villas or freshly built holiday homes, even the increasing number of compact being-constructed, summer estates or campuses that have spread throughout the foothills.

Briatico is shell with a few random cars, the odd lines of washing & a tired, semi-deserted supermercado indicating any human life for this time of year. In summer it must be heaving. Its one saving place is a patch of sand with a collection of fishing boats drawn up on the beach with some ramshackle sheds at one end & a ruin of a watchtower at the other, waiting for history’s Saracen invaders.

Below Tropea, numerous small villages, seemingly deserted in April, dot every cove. In the summer months they host Italian holidaymakers in particulard. Brave the skelter of a lane down to the beach at one such village, Ricadi, negotiate the resurfacing team with their huge lorries, their steaming, tar-laying machine & their creaking, beaping bulldozer who will stop for no man but just beckon you past on their freshly-laid tarmac, & find a beautiful, paradisicle beach of soft sand, eroded pools of volcanic rocks, backed by palms & luscious vegetation & a few empty, boarded up beach bars. In the far distance a few figures wander the empty sands or settle to appreciate the isolation.

Scilla was founded by Tyrrhennian Sea pirates around the 5th century BC. Swordfish boats still go out from sloped launchways to bring home their traditional catch to be cooked & served in the tourist restaurants that stand on covered platforms up to their knees in the sea.