Copanello

Copanello
Copanello Lido beach
Demonym	Stalettesi (the same as the commune it belongs to)

Copanello or Copanello de Stalettì is a frazione (a hamlet, in Italy) of the municipality of Stalettì in the province of Catanzaro. It's a seaside resort on the Ionian coast nicknamed la perla dello Jonio catanzarese, i.e. the Pearl of the Ionian Sea of Catanzaro.^[1] It is bounded to the north by the Alessi river and to the south by the Lamia torrent. Copanello itself is divided into two hamlets: Copanello Alto and Copanello Lido.

In the 14th century, Copanello was part of the estate of the Latin politician and writer Cassiodorus (485–580). Around 555, he built the Vivarium monastery (now in Copanello Alto) and the Chapel of San Martino. Under the name of Coscia, it was a dependency of the town of Squillace until the early 19th century, when it became part of the municipality of Stalettì.

From the 17th to the 19th century, Copanello belonged to the Pepe family, before becoming the property of various Italian patriots (Guglielmo Pepe, Enrico Cosenz, Damiano Assanti, Francesco Carrano, Girolamo Calà Ulloa and Camillo Boldoni), who sold it to Baron Scoppa. The territory of Copanello Lido was then inherited by the Lucifero family, whose last owner was Francesco Lucifero, while that of Copanello Alto was sold to Achille Fazzari, then to the Falcone family and finally to the Gatti family.

The first house on Copanello Lido was built in 1954, and the Villagio Guglielmo Vacation Village was inaugurated in 1969.

In 1957, Giovanni Gatti opened the Motel Copanello in Copanello Alto. From the mid-1960s onwards, Copanello was home to celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Renato Rascel, Totò, Bobby Solo, Rita Pavone, Gloria Gaynor, Gino Paoli, Raf Vallone and Peppino di Capri.