Travel to Basilicata in Southern Italy

A Photo Journal of Southern Italy

fields of antichi grani outside Venosa, Basilicata, april 2023

*scroll to the bottom for where to stay next time you are in Basilicata

*press the play button to listen to me share highlights

This month’s photo journal is a collection from my recent trip to the region of Basilicata. My family is originally from a tiny town outside of Potenza. Looking down on the Bassento River which fed the fields of antichi grani my ancestors farmed, my little paese sits at the top of a steep hill with the Dolomiti Lucane as a backdrop. It’s so tiny that you might not notice it. But like all Italian hilltop villages it is steeped in history and local customs which are kept alive in cryptic dialect. Every story, song and prayer holds the seeds to the past, a past that I am trying to uncover. While anything said in dialect sounds more mysterious than maybe is warranted, I am here to solve an actual mystery.

I grew up hearing stories of something that happened that caused my family to leave our little paese…