On the beach at Badolato Marina, along the pine-tree-lined Ionian coast of Calabria, Mario Gallelli is leisurely preparing his lido for summer. It's a sunny Friday morning, and a group of school children carrying bin bags, led by their teachers, are picking up litter from the empty shore.

Its reputation long tainted by associations with organized crime, Italy's southernmost mainland region of Calabria remains one of the country's least popular destinations with international travelers. According to research by Demoskopika, 1.9 million tourists visited Calabria in 2019, of which 20% were foreign. That's only 0.5% of the 65 million foreigners who visited Italy that year.