Throughout the nineteenth century the territory of Ricadi survived exclusively on agriculture, characterised above all by the production of onions, citrus fruit, table wine and figs but there was also a considerable production of silk, hemp, linen and cotton.   However, it was a family based, self-supporting economy and, with the exception of the sea, lacked the necessary means of communication for the commercialisation of its products. From the late nineteenth century onwards, therefore, of evident importance were the “Napoli-Reggio Calabria” railway (the Ricadi stretch was started on 28 February 1889) and the provincial road which joined, on the one side Tropea, and on the other Vibo Valentia (known at that time as “Via Regia”).