Published by Hiller Press, 2020, 238 pages

Karen Haid, who has spent many years in southern Italy and speaks Italian, explores Basilicata, the “instep of the Italian boot”.

Basilicata is sandwiched between Puglia, Campania and Calabria, with Greek temples, medieval castles, caves with early Christian paintings, beaches, snowy mountains—not to mention the brigands of old—and much more. It was known as Lucania and until today, someone from Basilicata is known as a lucano or lucana.

The capital Potenza is known as a città verticale or vertical city, because people “move vertically, or at the minimum on an incline, all day long, going up and down staircases, escalators, elevators and streets in order to carry out their normal lives”. Yes, there are public elevators that go up and down the city!

Haid travels extensively through the region and engages with the people she meets. At the Parade of the Turks in Potenza, she learns local expressions from a young man (like Effess… said with enthusiasm and the raising of an outstretched hand).

Near Castelmezzano, a town “clutched onto the edge of a cliff at the base of gargantuan, spikey rocks”, she takes the Volo Dell’Angelo, the flight of the angels, which involves being strapped into a harness attached to a rope stretching over a distance of 1.5 kilometres and sent off through the air at 120 kilometres an hour!

She goes to Mt. Vulture, the only major volcano east of the Apennine chain. The crater’s two lakes are surrounded by a lush forest extraordinarily rich in biodiversity. The European Bramea, a night moth, which “has been flapping its wings from as far back as the Miocene period” lives exclusively in the forest.  

Throughout her trip, people she meets, particularly women, invite her into their homes. Like Teresa, who lives next door to Haid’s apartment in Accettura and makes sure that Haid is fed and taken care of.

Which brings me to the food. I was delighted that Haid is a foodie. Her descriptions of what she ate made me want to leave for Basilicata right away. There is peperoni cruschi, a sundried sweet, crunchy red pepper; lamb stew with lampascioni, a bulb from the hyacinth family that tastes like a small, bitter onion; and bacon made from the pig’s jowl. The antipasti on fixed menus are enough for a meal in themselves: grilled vegetables, pecorino, and caciocavallo cheeses, salami and capocollo (a cold cut made from pig’s neck).

There is a lot more in the book. Haid is a convincing guide, and I have certainly put Basilicata on my list of places to visit!

See also Karen Haid’s Calabria.

This review first appeared on Women on the Road.