BASILICATA

Between the Pollino mountains to the south and the valleys of the Lucanian Apennines, bordering both the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, Basilicata is perhaps the wildest and most mysterious region in Italy. It is the land of Matera—the city of Sassi carved into the rock, European Capital of Culture 2019, and one of the world's most extraordinary UNESCO sites—where man has inhabited the caves of the Gravina Canyon for eight thousand years without interruption, creating one of the most complex and fascinating cave dwelling systems human civilization has ever produced. It is the land of Carlo Levi and his Christ Stopped at Eboli, of villages overlooking deep valleys like Pisticci, Tricarico, and Grottole, of the Pollino forests where Bosnian pines grow on the rocks like a monument to resilience.

beaches

Despite its predominantly mountainous and inland composition, Basilicata boasts two windows to the sea of ​​extraordinary beauty. The Ionian coast, the longest at approximately 40 kilometers, offers fine, golden sandy beaches such as Metaponto—with its magnificent beach and the Tavole Palatine, the ruins of the Temple of Hera Argive—Nova Siri, Policoro with the Bosco Pantano forest, and the San Giuliano Nature Reserve. The Tyrrhenian coast, just 30 kilometers between Maratea and Sapri, is one of the most spectacular coastal stretches in Southern Italy: the village of Maratea with the 21-meter-tall statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over the promontory, the limestone cliffs of Monte San Biagio, the coves of Acquafredda and Fiumicello, and crystalline waters that rival the Amalfi Coast in beauty.

Landscapes

Pollino National Park, Italy's largest national park by area, encompasses the mountains between Basilicata and Calabria in a region of great biodiversity and alpine beauty. The Bosnian pine—the park's iconic tree, capable of surviving for millennia on the most rugged rocks with its twisted trunk and golden bark—is the emblem of resistance. The Lucanian Dolomites of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa are pinnacles of dolomite rock rising vertically from the Agri Valley like the towers of a natural castle; between the two villages runs the Volo dell'Angelo, Italy's most thrilling zip line. The Agri Valley, with the Pertusillo reservoir—one of the largest lakes in Southern Italy—and the oil extraction of the largest oil field in continental Europe, and the sources of the Bradano and Basento rivers, complete the portrait of a strong yet silent region.