This area is picturesque and unusual. Marked on the map are mostly quiet open roads which wind through silent valleys and mountains. Among the best places to visit are villages lost in a tranquillity which may be broken only by the sound of your car. You penetrate a region unknown to most Italians except from the movies which have been shot in the calanchi (badlands) of Basilicata: Pasolini’s St Mark’s Gospel and Paramount’s King David among others.

The roads highlighted on the map are mostly minor, or country lanes, always with a fast main road nearby. Travelling east to west you climb a steady gradient from sea level to about 400 m at Matera, midpoint of the journey. Thereafter, in the Basilicata high­lands, you climb more steeply to about 1,200 m before descending on Potenza at 819 m. Be careful to stick to the marked roads, however wildly they meander and double back. The road network is thin and a wrong turn­ing could lead you miles astray. 

At the eastern end, in the Valle d’ltria, the curious trulli are found. Trulli are conical stone huts, white and grey, topped and painted with strange symbols – ball, cross, egg, diamond, pointed cap. Years ago they sheltered whole populations. Few are inhabited now, although most are still in use as stables or tool-sheds. A modern fashion for designer trulli in garish shades – like the mock-Eliz­abethan of the English stockbroker belt – desecrates the countryside here and there. 

The sassi or rock dwellings of Basilicata were the homes of neolithic peoples, then Byzantine monks and shepherds, then poor peasants. They spiral down from rocky heights into gravine (ravines) tangles of walls, steps, roofs, caves and rock-cut chapels. A few are now crafts workshops. You can wander through on a ‘tourist trail’ or accept the guidance of small boys who know everything and can take you everywhere.

 TRANSPORT

The main Adriatic railway passes through Bari and Brindisi en route to Lecce. From all three towns the east-west line across the peninsula is accessible, with stations at Taranto, Metaponto and Potenza. Most other towns are connected with Bari, Brindisi, Taranto and Matera by the rail cars of the Sud-Est railway.

Country people depend almost entirely on buses for getting about. To get near the heart of the neglected lands you can hardly do better than take a bus ride – you will be the object of curiosity. The Ferrovie del Sud-Est bus service connects Martina Franca and Gioia del Colle with Bari and Taranto. SITA (www.sitasudtrasporti.it), runs buses to Castellaneta, Laterza and Matera.