"No Longer Do-It-Yourselfers in Basilicata" Basilicata by hquittner

How did two elderly "seniorsightseers" end up in Matera? Being too old to travel independently any longer, we decided to depend upon the ingenuity of strangers and signed up for an Elderhostel tour of Eastern Europe. Concluding that the hassle of getting to and from the Continent warranted a longer time there, we found a sojourn that would link up with that tour and provide more amusement: VERY Southern Italy! We had never been further South than Paestum (and Sicily was still in our future), so we signed up. This was a new offering from Elderhostel (Their Italian trips are carefully set up by Trinity College of Hartford,CN).They have somewhat modified the trip we took to decrease Basilicata and add Calabria, so Melfi and Venosa are not incleded but Reggio and Sila Mtns. are visited instead.

The ravine

Basilicata (ancient Lucania) is the meost desolate of the Italian Regioni. It is predominantly inland but has two small beach coasts: Maratea (on the Tyrrhenian Sea) and Metaponto (in the Arch of the boot). Both are frequented by Italians in Summer. Basilicata is arid with little rivers and parallel N-S ridges of dolomite and limestone which limit transportation across the area.

Doric 6C BC Greek Temple

Matera and the Sassi are musts, but there is much more to the city. In the NE are Venosa and Melfi contaning important Norman sites. Potenza is embedded in the mountains and we did not get there. Metapontum was one of the Greek colonies (with ruins and a museum to visit).We were so moved by the writing of Carlo Levi that we (and others) decided to visit Aliano where he was confined in exile and inspired his great book "Christ stopped at Eboli". (We have included more about him in a General Tip on Basilicata.) The Tavole Palatine pictured here is 2 km away from the Archeological Park and worth a short visit.

• Pros:A different Italy
• Cons:Hard to get to.
• In a nutshell:Only for true European travel addicts