"Basilicata STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION" Basilicata by karentids

If you are looking for an unspoilt and 'real' part of Italy look no further than Basilicata. Basilicata is located in south Italy, virtually the 'instep' of Italy's boot. It has not yet been widely 'discovered' by foreign tourists although popular with the Italians, particularly in July and August.

Basilicata has a mountainous and somewhat wild terrain with 2 coastlines. One in the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea and a tiny coast off the Tyrrhenian Sea.

It's neighbour, Puglia, is virtually flat with 10% of all Italy's coastline, an 800m stretch of coast with sandy beaches and seaside villages.

In the past we have visited wonderful Florence, Venice and Rome etc but now wanted to see an unspoilt part of the country. We were not disappointed, it was fantastic.

Ladies enjoying the sun

We spent some 14 days in the Basilicata area after arriving at Lamezia Airport from the UK. We picked up a hire car at the airport and drove up to Tramutola where we stayed for 7 days.

One of the most enjoyable part of our travels was the wonderful people we met, in Italy as in Sicily but particularly so in Basilicata. It appears that family and friends are more important than work and this shows - they were all so warm, friendly and helful, we just could not believe the extent of their hospitability.

Everywhere we went, a smile from us and the appropriate greeting for the time of day such as Buon giorno was not only reciprocated but was invariably followed by a conversation, of sorts. There is little English spoken in this area and whilst it was frustrating at times not to be able to communicate fully we were able to expand on what little Italian we spoke, the local people were more than happy to help with our pronunciation, etc. They appreciated our attempts to speak their language and we had a lot of laughs during our conversations and gesticulations.

The photo shows 3 ladies we had been chatting with. They were pleased when I asked if I could take a picture of them and immediately smoothed their hair and posed for us.

Then we explored the Parco Nazionale del Pollino, South of Tramutola, Italy's largest National Park which covers some 1960 square km and is shared about equally between Basilicata and Calabria. The Park takes its name from Monte Pollino (2248 m).
This area is also wild and rugged but even more so, with its snow capped mountains (April), forests, ravine and over 20 villages it is a magnificent area to explore but a car is essential here.

We stayed in Cersosimo in the east side of the Park and visited the unique little towns San Paolo Albanese and San Costantino Albanese, built on the top of hill sides. Albanian refugees fleeing the Turkish invasion of their country in the 16th centure settled in these 2 towns. They have managed to retain their language, tradition and dress of which they are intensely proud.
This is also due to some extent to their geographical isolation. So much so that the language they speak is a unique derivative of the Arbereshe which was used 5 centuries ago.

It was fascinating to walk round the narrow streets and alleys with their stone built houses. We stumbled across a little bar serving simple local food in a tiny back alley where we had the best home made pasta dish ever.

The other side of the park we stayed in Rotonda. We also went to a seaside town on the east coast.
On our way back to Lamezia to return the car before our trip to Sicilia we travelled down the West coast staying in Diamante.

I was not sure under what headings to put all the small places I wanted to comment on. The only way I could think of was enter them under my
'Things to do' tips which I am currently working on so if you are interested in Basilicata's little places please keep taking a look under Things to do, I keep adding to them.

• Pros:Beautiful, wild, rugged and peaceful with lovely people