On A3, 140 km south east of Salerno. Inscriptions on a blackened tomb in the ill-lit l0thC San Nicola church seem to read ‘Donna Lisa… del Giocondo’. Though art historians insist that Mona Lisa was a young Florentine matron, Lagonegro likes to think she was a local girl and points out that the rocks among which she sits in da Vinci’s painting are typical of local scenery. You will not otherwise want to linger here, unless to undertake the strenuous walk to Monte del Papa (2,000 m) for a view of two seas, lonian and Tyrrhenian, and the whole breadth of Lucania.

Detour – Maratea

On Route 18, 20 km south of Lagonegro. A well-kept secret for years, the pink and white houses on low cliffs, surrounding a small-boat harbour, are being ‘improved’ with up-market tourist developments. The old quarter above the port has naive paintings by local artists in the medieval Rosario and Santa Maria Maggiore churches. The grotto of Marina di Maratea has stalactites and stalagmites. A big new hotel-and-restaurant complex is centred on a de luxe hotel which was once the most expencive in Italy.