Grimaldi claims to be the geographic centre of Calabria, which gives it a symbolic weight the small population of around 2,000 people takes seriously. The town was largely destroyed by the 1783 earthquake and rebuilt at a nearby site; the ruins of the original settlement are still accessible a short distance away, an eerie open-air museum of collapsed streets and half-standing walls.
The modern town has the quiet, slightly melancholy atmosphere of many Calabrian interior communes. Most families have relatives in Canada, Australia, Argentina, or Germany — emigrants who left in the 20th century and whose descendants come back in August for the summer holidays, when the population swells noticeably. Local bars fill with people who grew up speaking Calabrian dialect but now return speaking Portuguese or English. The encounter between the home village and its diaspora is one of the more interesting things to witness in southern Italy.
The surrounding territory is agricultural: olives, wheat, and scattered woodland. Hiking routes connect the ruins of the old town to the hills above, and the views across the Savuto valley toward the Sila in the distance are as good as anywhere in the interior of Calabria.