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From Taranto, in Puglia to Reggio, at Italy's toe-tip , the Ionian coast is a mainly flat sandy strip, sometimes monotonous but less developed than the Tyrrhenian side of the peninsula, and with cleaner water. The northern section, from Metaponto to Capo Colonna , consists of a mountainous interior backing onto an empty seaboard, punctuated only by holiday resorts, a plethora of campsites - overflowing, in the summer months, with legions of Italians - and some notable historical sites. Of these, the most significant are connected with the periods of Greek occupation, the most recent of which was that of the Byzantines, who administered the area on and off for 500 years, leaving their traces most strikingly in the hilltop town of Rossano . A thousand years earlier, the clutch of Greek colonies collectively known as Magna Graecia rose and fell, of which Metapontion, Sybaris and Kroton, all on this stretch of the Ionian coast, were some of the greatest. Although only the first of these has been properly excavated, there are museums in all, describing an era that was - culturally and intellectually - the brightest moment in the history of Basilicata and Calabria. All the coastal towns are well connected by rail and bus, while places inland are linked by local buses from the coast. The SS106 road, which skirts this coastline, is mostly straight and fast.
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