Excursions in Basilicata e Puglia

Both well-known and less known touristic destinations which can be reached from the Nova Siri Holiday Village are many and will be able to satisfy those who love to visit, observe and touch the splendor of the landscape with their own hands, enchanting places which man’s mind and hand have realized during thousands of years of history.

Since we are in the heart of Magna Graecia, there is a vast choice of places and museums to visit, regarding this historical context, famous all over the world and the birthplace of Greek civilization.

In Metaponto you can discover the excavations of the ancient city, the Palatine tables and the National Archaeological Museum. In Policoro there are the excavations of ancient Siris and the national archaeological museum and the National Museum of Siritide. In Nova Siri there are still remains of Roman thermal baths.

In the province of Potenza there is the Park of Gallipoli-Cofnato and the two small towns of Castelmezzano (with a small church of the Templars) and Pietrapertosa, where just a few years ago the “Flight of the Angel” was realized, a steel cable which allows a flight from one town to the other at 1,000 meters. In the city of Potenza there is the Pollino National Park where you can observe the famous Bosnian Pines, singular specimens in the world.

Those who love nature and walking in isolated and natural areas can’t miss an excursion to the National Park dell'Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri Lagonegrese in which there are numerous sanctuaries as well as the excavations of Grumentum with an adjoining Museum. Nearby the petroleum tower from the Viggiano oilfields stands, as does the Pertusillo dam with the Sirino mountain in the background.

Worth mentioning and visiting are also the Cultural Park of Carlo Levi di Aliano with his where the house he was exiled to is located and the Museum of Rural Civilization, the Cultural Park of Isabella Morra, poet from Valsinni, reassessed by Benedetto Croce and her castle where she was isolated and the Cultural Park of Albino Pierro, the poet of the “Arabs’ den”, the so-called “Rabatana”, the oldest part of Tursi.

Finally, a tour in the Park of the Murgia Materana can’t be missed, splendid and unique in the city of Matera, also known as the city of Stones, elected a UNESCO heritage site in 1993. The origins of the City of Stones are unknown to us, and from the archaeological remains trace back to the archaic era; in the Ridola National Museum (founded in 1911) there are materials from the Archaic Period which attest to the origins of the “city before the city”, that is, the Iron Age.

The etymology of the city of Matera seems to derive from “mata” which seems to mean “grotto” or “stone” or from the Arabic dialect “matmur” which has more or less the same meaning of “grotto” or “hollowed rock”. This ancient city, already know in the Neolithic, is divided in the central part called the “Civita”, represented by the Cathedral and by the few remains of the “Torre metelliana”, the Sasso Caveoso in the South and the Sasso Barisano in the North, where, from above, they dominate the impassable Gravina stream.

In the Stones there are quarters and neighborhoods in a tangle of small streets that overlap each other and each has churches, chapels, rupestrian churches and hypogea. The private and neighborhood structure for water collection and the Casa Grotta where all the evidence of how they lived is kept are very interesting to see.

The hurried tourist must visit the hill in front of the city of Matera, called the “Belvedere” from which you can see the entire city which makes up the extraordinary panorama which attracted many film directors who set their masterpieces there, including Pasolini who filmed “The Gospel according to Matthew” and Mel Gibson who filmed the dramatic film “Passion”.

The Murgia also offers the possibility to visit numerous grottoes (one of the most famous is the Bat Grotto) and rupestrian churches (Madonna delle Vergini). Just a few kilometers from the city, the famous “Crypt of the Original Sin”, the Saracene Village, etc. In the “Sassi” there are many local restaurants and stores, as well as artisan laboratories for souvenirs.

Finally, for those who love wine and food, there will be no shortage of stops to buy local products: the pecorino cheese from Moliterno, beans from Sarconi, cold cuts from Gorgoglione and Cirigliano, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, black baked Majatica olives and provolone cheese from the Podolica cows in Ferrandina, etc.. Worth taking into account are the white and red wines from this area which accompany the tasty, high quality, food of the inland area.

If you would like to leave Basilicata and see the region of Puglia, you must see suggestive Alberobello, the city of the famous “Trulli”, typical conical stone buildings of protohistorical origins, exclusive to Puglia and a UNESCO heritage site since 1996. Another place to visit could be Taranto, a splendid seaside city where one must see the “Ori di Taranto” which makes up one of the most important example of precious metalworking and gold working and shows that it was one of the most developed activities of Magna Graecia between the 4th and 1st centuries BC.

In Rocca Imperiale, two kilometers from Novasiri, in the region of Calabria, there is the most important wax museum in Italy. Inside, you can also admire the fossil museum and the reconstruction of the Greek mythology with beautiful statues. A few steps away, there is one of the most beautiful Medieval castles in the region.