Read around Italy - Basilicata

Come with me on a reading journey around Italy's stunning twenty regions.

As a book blogger/book reviewer for books set in Italy, from mysteries to histories, from crime to cookbooks, from thrillers to travel guides, cosy up in an armchair and let me take you on a journey around all of Italy’s beautiful regions.

We head south this month for a stop in Basilicata, a region of ancient origins, suspended between two seas and with mountains of great beauty. It’s a rugged, mountainous region located between Campania, Apulia, and Calabria. Often referred to as “the arch” of Italy’s boot, it is characterised by its dramatic, untouched landscapes, the ancient cave city of Matera, and a rich, traditional cuisine

This is a region where the passage of man has left its mark since prehistoric times. With the ancient name of “Lucania”, it is enriched by an incredible artistic heritage. The capital is Potenza, a city that combines the charm of the old with the energy of the modern.

Known as one of Italy’s best-kept secrets, this region offers a more authentic, less crowded experience between mountains and beaches. It has deep, rustic culinary traditions featuring local products like chestnuts, olive oil, and caciocavallo cheese

As a story location, Basilicata offers a compelling backdrop of poverty, exile, and resilience, providing a rich, complex backdrop for historical fiction. Its historic, rugged, and isolated hill villages (like Aliano) represent a “forgotten” Italy, allowing stories to focus on timeless traditions and endurance, genuine Mediterranean life, rural landscapes, and stark beauty away from mass tourism.

Finding Marco

'When you reach a fork in the road, take it.'

- a gentle, reflective contemporary novel. The process of review and renewal is one which many of us in mid-life will be (or will become) familiar with. Marco is not seeking a return to some idyllic past; he is drawing from the strength of his cultural ties and the beauty of his surroundings to make sense of where he wants to be in the future.

by Kenneth C. Cancellara

As a young boy, running through the mountain valleys of Italy, Mark Gentile dreams of success-the kind of success that happens in a boardroom, far away from the country life. So after graduating from a prestigious Canadian law school, Mark quickly climbs the corporate and legal ladder, eventually becoming CEO of a leading North American auto manufacturer.

But after butting heads with company leaders, Mark fears he has compromised his ethics and decides to resign to determine the next phase in his life. With his wife’s blessing, Mark returns to Acerenza, his birthplace in southern Italy. In the small village, he seeks out his childhood friends, spends time among the grapevines at his family’s vineyard, and recalls his mischievous adventures as a young boy named “Marco.”

While enjoying the leisurely pace of the new life he’s found in his old home, however, Mark must make a decision: Should he abandon his roots for a second time and satisfy his innate hunger for the struggles and rewards of corporate life? Or should he embrace his native land and create a more balanced life for himself and his family?

Murder in Matera

A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy

by Helene Stapinski

A writer goes deep into the heart of Italy to unravel a century-old family mystery in this spellbinding memoir that blends the suspenseful twists of Making a Murderer and the emotional insight of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels.

Since childhood, Helene Stapinski heard lurid tales about her great-great-grandmother, Vita. In Southern Italy, she was a loose woman who had murdered someone. Immigrating to America with three children, she lost one along the way. Helene’s youthful obsession with Vita deepened as she grew up, eventually propelling the journalist to Italy, where, with her own children in tow, she pursued the story, determined to set the record straight.

Finding answers would take Helene ten years and numerous trips to Basilicata, the rural “”instep “ of Italy’s boot—a mountainous land rife with criminals, superstitions, old-world customs, and desperate poverty. Though false leads sent her down blind alleys, Helene’s dogged search, aided by a few lucky—even miraculous—breaks and a group of colourful local characters, led her to the truth.

Under Italian Skies

‘Imagine swapping your house for a stay in an Italian villa . . . and falling in love with the owner's life . . .

by Nicky Pellegrino

Stella has life under control - and that's the way she likes it. For twenty-five years, she's been a trusted assistant to a legendary fashion designer, but after her boss dies suddenly, she's left with nothing to do apart from clearing the studio.

It seems as though the life she wanted has vanished. She is lost - until one day she finds a house swap website and sees a beautiful old villa in a southern Italian village. Could she really exchange her poky London flat for that?

But what was just intended as a break becomes much more, as Stella finds herself trying on a stranger's life. As the villa begins to get under her skin, she can't help but imagine the owner from the clues around her. She meets his friends, cooks the local food he recommends and follows suggestions to go to his favourite places. But can an idea of someone ever match up the reality?

Christ Stopped at Eboli

Levi writes about his 1935-6 exile, describing the bleak landscapes and the poor people he lived alongside. They had an expression - "We're not Christians. Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli," - which he used for the evocative title of his memoir. Eboli is a town to the northwest of Basilicata, and here, 'Christian' meant 'human being', because they thought of themselves as being mere beasts, having been bypassed by morality or civilisation.

by Carlo Levi

Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini and anti-fascist activities, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence of death - for Christ did stop at Eboli.

Seasons in Basilicata:

A Year in a Southern Italian Hill Village – A Travel Memoir Following Carlo Levi’s Path Through Aliano’s Pagan Heritage

by David Yeadon

Award-winning travel writer and illustrator, David Yeadon, embarks with his wife, Anne, on an exploration of the "lost word" of Basilicata, in the arch of Italy's boot. What is intended as a brief sojourn turns into an intriguing residency in the ancient hill village of Aliano, where Carlo Levi, author of the world-renowned memoir Christ Stopped at Eboli, was imprisoned by Mussolini for anti-Fascist activities. As the Yeadons become immersed in Aliano's rich tapestry of people, traditions, and festivals, revelling in the rituals and rhythms of the grape and olive harvests, the culinary delights, and other peculiarities of place, they discover that much of the pagan strangeness that Carlo Levi and other notable authors revealed still lurks beneath the beguiling surface of Basilicata.

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IN THE KITCHEN: COOKBOOKS

Basilicata's cuisine is a rustic, "peasant-style" Mediterranean tradition centred on pork, lamb, legumes, and handmade durum wheat pasta, famously using peperoni cruschi (sweet, fried dried peppers) and Lucanica sausage. Dishes like Peperoni Cruschi: Sun-dried, deep-fried red peppers from Senise, often called “Lucanian gold,” served as a snack or side or Pasta Mollicat, a staple dish of pasta tossed with a sauce made from oil, anchovies, garlic, and crispy breadcrumbs.

• Flavours of Basilicata by Federazione Lucana D'America: Cooking the food of happiness.

This recipe book of traditional Lucanian dishes and cuisine provides cooks with a taste of authentic foods from the Basilicata region of Italy.

• Eat and Love Basilicata: The Basilicata Cookbook by Aldo Giannini:

A cookbook, written in English language, offering all the essential recipes of the most popular dishes of the Italian region of Basilicata.

• Basilicata: A Rough Land with a Heart of Gold by Irina Sambor: Traditions, Recipes and Local Products

This book is a journey through Basilicata’s culinary heart:

I hope you enjoy my choice of books! See you in the next region soon