The Dromo, ancient connecting route of the Magna Graecia cities

Along the Italian Ionian coast, within 1 km distance from the sea, in ancient times, a road axis known as "Dromo", connected the urban settlements of Magna Graecia (Greater Hellas). The name derives from the Greek language and literally means "street", "fast road". Some traces of the Dromo are also along the Sicilian Ionian coast. This circumstance suggests that the Greek and the indigenous communities at the time were connected not only by sea, but even through a longitudinal route over 700 km long. Also known as Gromo or Gromu, this road of Magna Graecia still today appears in local place names, especially in the area of the old Locri Epizefiri, through urban and peripheral road sections called "via Dromo". In some cases, such as between Bovalino and Locri towns, by means of modern website maps based on high quality aerial photos, it is possible to look at a substantial continuity of "Dromo", which stops only at the rivers. There are also sections of urban roads with similar names such as, for example, the "Dromillo". A specific study has been addressed to a first research aimed at rebuilding the old route along the Calabrian coast, highlighting its relationship with the crossed urban contexts and with the Ionian landscape. The intent is to bring out the main features and characteristics of this route and to find identity elements, in order to elaborate, in the near future, an action plan of cultural heritage enhancement, along the "Magna Graecia way" or "Magna Graecia Dromo"; a path open, as the Spanish “Camino de Santiago” (pilgrims’ way), to the travelers and tourist walkers interested in following the historical-cultural tracks of an extraordinary historic past, through archaeological and landscape sites of great interest.