The Solo Traveller
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Festivals and Events
“By the final night, everyone is reminiscing over dishes they made together, planning future trips, and hugging goodbye like they’ve known one another for years.” Image courtesy Calabria Food Fest.
The connection effect
By Anthony Neal Macri
Solo travel thrives on the possibility of connection, reinvention, and of showing up somewhere new and finding your place in it. In Calabria, I’ve seen food become the bridge that transforms strangers into companions. At Calabria Food Fest, our chef-led dinners, nonna-run cooking classes, and seaside communal tastings aren’t just activities, they’re catalysts for a sense of belonging.
True connection almost always arrives quietly. Sometimes it's during the morning market walk, when everyone crowds around a fisherman’s stall as he lifts a silver-blue swordfish from the ice. A solo traveller reaches for her camera at the same moment someone else leans in for a closer look. They laugh, step aside for one another, and suddenly they’re talking about where they’re from, why they came alone, and what they hope to taste before the week ends.
Calabria, Italy
16–23 June 2026
Or it’s during a nonna-run cooking class, when sleeves are rolled up and strangers stand shoulder to shoulder, kneading dough until it yields. There’s a moment, right after someone learns how to pinch the edges of a traditional fileja pasta, that the room loosens. People start teasing each other’s technique, nonna taps wrists playfully when someone goes too heavy on the flour, and the entire table becomes a small, temporary family.
Our chefs are storytellers as much as they are cooks, and they proudly guide small groups through ancient alleyways, pointing out the citrus trees families have tended for centuries. Our producers open their farms not as businesses, but as homes, with plates already set out. And our nonnas? Well, they’re the soul of the festival. They teach with their hands, feed with their hearts, and have an absolute talent for making strangers feel like grandchildren.
Food is universal, but how we share it is deeply personal, and in Calabria, hospitality doesn’t need translation, it’s felt. You can’t rush a pot of ragù or the way a story unfolds when a winemaker tells you how his grandfather planted the first vines. These slower moments give solo travellers time to settle into conversations naturally. You don’t need small talk when you’re tasting bergamot for the first time or debating whether a tomato sauce really needs basil. Even the shyest travellers light up when sharing flavours. When everyone is tasting, kneading, sipping, or learning together, hierarchy dissolves. People who met that morning start cheering each other on like old friends.
And then there’s the coastline. At sunset, tastings overlooking the Ionian Sea, guests sit at long communal tables while the air fills with the scent of citrus and olive wood smoke. I’ve watched solo travellers arrive a little reserved, but after the second course, someone asks, ‘Have you tried this wine?’, and five seats down, someone else answers, ‘Let’s swap glasses and compare!’. By dessert, they’re exchanging numbers and planning to meet again the next morning.
At Calabria Food Fest, I’ve seen solo travellers arrive quietly, sometimes nervously, unsure of what a week alone in southern Italy might hold. By the final night, they’re reminiscing over dishes they made together, planning future trips, and hugging goodbye like they’ve known one another for years. Food works its magic that way. It gives us not just nourishment, but each other.
And my top three tips for creating meaningful and memorable connections through food?
1. Choose small-group, hands-on experiences. You won’t bond with 40 people on a bus tour, but you will form real connections while kneading dough beside five others.
2. Say ‘Yes!’ to communal tables. Whether at a seaside tasting or a rustic trattoria, sitting with strangers is the easiest way to turn a meal into a memory.
3. Share your story, even a little. Tell the person next to you why you’re travelling solo. That vulnerability often sparks the most meaningful conversations.
For all the details about the Calabria Food Fest 2026, visit Anthony and the team at the Calabria Food Fest website here.
Anthony Neal Macri is the Creative Director of the Calabria Food Fest. Images of the 2025 Calabria Food Fest courtesy Calabria Food Fest.