Aliano, the Lucanian Badlands of Carlo Levi's Exile

Aliano is one of those places you reach almost by chance, along roads that climb through the clays of southern Basilicata. The village looks out over the calanchi: deep incisions that wind and rain have carved into the earth over millennia, creating spires, crests and ravines that resemble a lunar landscape. It's a spectacle that changes colour with the light of day, from the grey of morning to the gold of sunset, and one you cross on foot along marked trails, in an almost total silence.

The name of Aliano is bound to Carlo Levi, the writer and painter exiled here under Fascism, who set "Christ Stopped at Eboli" in these very places. The house that took him in and his grave, placed according to his wishes in the village's small cemetery, are still today destinations for those who come to understand that peasant, forgotten Basilicata he described. A widespread museum and a picture gallery preserve records of that story and of the local culture.

Strolling through the lanes of the old town means coming across the ancient houses with their "anthropomorphic chimneys", and looking out over vistas that open up suddenly beyond the last dwellings. There are no crowds, no queues: often you meet only elderly people sitting on their doorsteps and the odd cat in the sun. It's slow tourism, made of conversations and of time that does not rush.

The best time to visit is spring or early autumn, when the heat of the plateau is bearable and the badlands can be walked at leisure. Aliano rewards those who choose to linger: simple, honest cuisine, fair prices and the authenticity of a South that elsewhere has been lost.

Related guides: An alternative to Matera: 7 stone and cave cities of the South to discover · Basilicata without a car in 3 days: Matera, the Murgia and the Lucanian Dolomites.

Getting there

Aliano rises among the badlands of Basilicata, in the hinterland of the province of Matera. A car is the most practical way to get there: from Matera you follow the SS7 Appia and the Basentana road inland, while bus connections between Aliano and Matera also exist. The reference airport is Bari, from which you reach Matera by shuttle or train and then continue by car.

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• Where to eat in Bari
• How to get to Bari