Palmi is a modern tourist centre situated in an enchanting position closet o Mount S. Elia on a terrace overlooking Punta Peloro on the Sicilian coast and is home to the Ethnographic Museum unique in Calabria  with its collection of masks and distaffs, the Antiquarium containing material from Taurianum, the Cilea Museum, the casts gallery  of the sculptor Michele Guerrisi, the Leonida Repaci gallery with works by the greatest contemporary painters and library specialised in Calabrian History. The majestic procession of the “Varia”  takes place in August every two years on occasion of the solemn feast in honour of the Madonna when a 25 m high decorative float in drawn through  the town. Palmi’s public gardens occupy a panoramic position close to the 16th century church dei Monaci which contains a 17th century wooden crucifix and other works of art. In the cathedral there is a silver picture of the Madonna della Lettera (16th century) and two statues of the Assunta and S. Elia (18th century). Taurena di Palmi is a popular seaside tourist attraction and area of archaeological interest. La marinella is a small beach at Palmi situated at the foot of the imposing S. Elia mountain. In the vicinity there is an amphitheatre with seating for 800 people. S.Elia is known as the balcony on the Tyrrhenian sea due to its splendid panorama of the Gioia Tauro plain, the Aeolian Islands, the Costa Viola, Aspromonte, the wonderful strait of Messina and mount Etna. The area is surrounded by pine woods and has a panoramic flight of steps to the edge of the precipice  which plunges hundreds of metres into the sea.