Basilicata  

Part of the territory including Potenza, the capital of the region, is hilly and mountainous and overall the  landscape is barren. Agriculture, however, is still the major economic resource. The region has two openings towards  the sea : one along the Tyrrhenian coast  with the fascinating  Maratea, an important seaside resort,  and one along the Ionian coast, where rises the ancient city of Metaponto founded by the Greeks. Due to the meagre soil a lot of inhabitants in the past emigrated to the Americas   and to Australia

My Suggestions:

Must not omit a visit to the Norman Castle of Melfi and the to the city of Matera where we can see the “Sassi” houses and churches dug into the “tufa” crag. These houses, not much more than grottoes, are built in the rock/tufa and on their roof there are roads, gardens and other houses. In 1950 this situation gave rise to a “national scandal” due to the fact that people were still living in grottoes. So the government built new houses for the 20.000 persons at the time still living in the “Sassi”. Fortunately the “Sassi/Grottoes” were not destroyed and after 40 years the Unesco included  them on the World Heritage sites list.  The Film Director “Mel Gibson” use the Matera’ Sassi/Grottoes as a set for his movie “The Passion of  Christ” because the “Sassi” look like Jerusalem 2000 years ago  (www.sassiweb.it)