 More
than any other of the regions of the Italian South,
Basilicata represents the quintessence of the
mezzogiorno . Culturally impoverished, underdeveloped
and - owing to emigration - sparsely populated, these
rural region was long considered only good for taxation,
and even then it was mismanaged. Although agriculture
was systematized to an extent when these land formed a
part of Magna Graecia, by the time the Normans arrived
there was little infrastructure or defence against the
depredations of maritime raiders.
Moreover, the feudal era didn't really die here until
the Bourbons were ejected at Unification, and remnants
of the older society persist in the widespread system of
patronage and an exaggerated use of titles.
Respect for authority co-exists with a deep scepticism
and an apathy and inertia vividly described by Carlo
Levi in his Christ Stopped at Eboli - a book that for
many Italians was the introduction to the very deep
problems besetting the mezzogiorno. Indeed, this area is
if anything even more marginalized than it was before
Unification, when it was at least the geographical
centre of the Bourbon state, and today talk of the Two
Nations of Italy is most strikingly manifest in what can
seem a very distant region from the emphatically
European north - to which its people provide a reluctant
supply of cheap labour.
But despite lingering attitudes on both sides that
perpetuate this gulf, much has changed in the south, to
the extent that the picture drawn in Levi's book would
hardly be recognized today, thanks largely to a massive
channelling of funds since the war to finance huge
irrigation and land-reclamation schemes, industrial
development and a modern system of communications, all
helping to set the southern economy on its feet.
Unemployment remains the highest in the country, and
emigration is still very much a reality, but malaria has
been eradicated, previously unproductive land made
fertile, and construction is under way everywhere -
though often hand-in-hand with the forces of organized
crime and with frequently dire consequences for the
physical aspect of the land.
In Basilicata, Potenza is useful as a transport hub for
the string of medieval towns lying to the north,
although the town holds none of the fascination of the
region's second city, Matera , whose distinctive sassi -
cavelike dwellings in the heart of the town - give it a
uniquely dramatic setting. Of the coasts, it's the
Tyrrhenian that is most engaging, with spots like
Maratea, Tropea and Scilla favourite hideaway resorts
for discerning Italian and foreign visitors. The Ionian
coast, on the other hand, can be bleak and is visited
mainly for its ancient sites - relics of the once mighty
states that comprised the Greek colonies known as Magna
Graecia.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
www.italiamia.com
Back to Regions |
|
