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Home > Travel Italy > Italy Destinations > Vibo Valentia
Vibo Valentia
Italy, officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica Italiana, is a Southern European country comprising of the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale, the boot or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola, the Peninsula.
Vibo Valentia is a town and comune in the Calabria region of southern Italy, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital of the Vibo Valentia province, and is an agricultural, commercial and tourist center. The most famous places nearby the town are Tropea, Ricadi and Pizzo. There are also many important manufacturing industries, and here there is the tuna district of Maierato. Very important for the local economy is the Vibo Marina's harbour. Its population according to the 2001 census was 33,957.
Vibo Valentia was originally the Greek colony of Hipponion. It was founded, probably around the late 7th century BC, by inhabitants of Locri, a principal city of the Italian Magna Graecia, located to the west of Vibo Valentia on the Ionian Sea. Diodorus Siculus reports that the city was taken in 388 BC, Before Christ by Dionysius the Elder tyrant of Syracuse, who deported all the population. The population came back in 378 BC, with the help of the Carthaginians.
In the following years Hipponion came under the dominion of the Bruttii, who controlled most of Calabria. The town became a Roman colony in 194 BC with the name of Vibo Valentia. After a phase of prosperity during the late Republic and early Empire, the town was almost completely abandoned after the fall of the Roman Empire. In 1070 the Normans build a castle at the site of the old Acropolis and in 1235 a new city was established by Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor and king of Sicily, with the name of Monteleone. The city got back the old Roman name of Vibo Valentia only in 1928. Vibo Valentia enjoys a very positive reputation with worldwide travelers, and is one of the most visited place. It is also said the place of best geographical environment and can trace its origins back to prehistoric times.
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