Shipwrecks in the seas surrounding the ''toe'' of Italy's boot are casting up details of long-forgotten battles and trade routes, thanks to the pioneering work of a dedicated local diver and historian.

Francesco Scavelli has been scouring the waters off the coast of Calabria for ten years, piecing together the history and final moments of dozens of wrecks from all periods of history.

''This is an ongoing research project,'' said Scavelli, whose team starts each exploration with a series of dives. Scavelli then turns to national and international shipping and navy archives, which he spends weeks perusing.

''It is pure passion that drives us to descend to the seabed to identify ships lost amid sponges and coral. We have even been able to identify boats dating back to before the 3rd century BC''.

With each vessel, Scavelli aims to confirm the place and date of the wreck, details about the crew, how it came to sink and what mission the ship was on.

Calabria has for centuries been a popular staging post for ships travelling between North Africa and Europe, and Scavelli's dives have uncovered many trade ships once laden with goods.

But the seas around the Italian toe have also been a key military target over the years, particularly during World War II.

The waters off southern Italy formed part of two vital European battle routes passing through the Strait of Messina during World War II, one leading to the Balkans, the other to Africa.

The area witnessed dozens of battles over convoys transporting supplies and provisions to troops on the front.

The remains of British, French, German, Italian, Greek and Cypriot vessels all lie on the Calabrian seabed, which now has the highest concentration of battle-wrecked ships anywhere in the world after Pearl Harbour.

One particularly interesting discovery from an earlier era was the remains of two vessels, one English, the other Spanish, that were wrecked in the early 1800s.

After a long, fierce battle, they succeeded only in sinking each other and both now lie on the Calabrian seabed, complete with their 140 cannons.

''The entire world has passed through Calabria's seas at one point or another,'' Scavelli concluded.

''The extremely high concentration of wrecked ships here clearly indicates the crucial role Calabria's waters have played in international navigation throughout the ages''.

A series of valuable archaeological finds have been pulled from the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas off Calabria over the years.

The most famous of these, the Riace Bronzes, were discovered by an amateur scuba diver in 1972. The pair of breathtaking fifth-century BC Greek sculptures are today considered one of Italy's greatest archaeological treasures.