Ciao Boa Gialla,
My wife's family (on father's side) lives in Cosenza, north of Catanzaro. Their last name is Papara. Cosenza is closer to the Tyrrenian Sea than Ionian, so diving the Tyrrenian area may be better for my brother-in-law, Peter, when he goes to Italy to visit family. Peter is not yet scuba certified. Once he is certified he will start with biology diving, basically just looking at fishes and such. He won't be able to dive deep until he gets advanced training and dive experience.
Can you recommend any dive shops on the Tyrrenian coast closer to Cosenza, and provide contact information? Do you know of any web sites that have photos and describe diving in Italy? Any help and information you can provide is very much appreciated. Grazie amico!
Cosenza in is the north of Calabria, closer to the Tyrrenian Sea than Ionian, as you correctly wrote. Unfortunately the best places for diving are norther (Praia a Mare, Scalea, Dino Isle,...) or souther (Tropea, Capo Vaticano, Scilla, ....).
I don't know much about the dives in the north (even though there a couple of good wreck, but for trimix diver). I think there are dives in Amantea (close to Cosenza), as I've found the reference for at least one diving (the email of the owner is
francesco.mazzei@fondali.it ), but I really don't know anything about it. I'll try to get info from friends.
I know much better the dives in the south, mainly the area of Capo Vaticano and Tropea. From Cosenza it takes less than two hours by car to get there. The dives in Tropea are very easy, shallow and warm water. Lot of interesting dives, lot of fishes and colors, in the range 15 mt. - 25 mt. I use to dive there every year, even i know very well all those sites, as they are very relaxing. I use the "Torre Ruffa Diving", very easy to find because it's in the harbour of Tropea. They do courses, and they also rent/sell dive gear. This is my suggestion for divers with few dives on the log book. In case, their email is
torreruffa@torreruffa.com: they know me well (as Boa Gialla or either as Andrea from Trento).
For more experienced divers, Scilla (souther than Tropea) is IMHO one of the most beatiful dive places in Italy. In particular, "La Montagna" (The mountain) is a rock at a depth of about 40 mt. filled with incredible Paramuricea Clavata red and yellow (see
this card ).
I'm looking for web pages with details and photo, but nothing in english, sorry.
To see some image of dives in Tropea (these photos are not so good, IMO) you can see here:
IMMERSIONI (i.e. Dives), and click on each name of dive spot.
For some photo of Scilla, see
here.
For any further question, ask me without any problem, even though I know my english is awful.
Ciao,
Andrea