Policoro

Policoro sits on the Ionian coast of Basilicata where the Agri river reaches the Gulf of Taranto. The modern town is built on and around the site of Heraclea (Eraclea Lucana), a Greek polis founded in 433 BC by Taras (Taranto) and Thurii as a joint colony, famous for the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC where Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated the Roman army at the cost famously called a "Pyrrhic victory." The Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide preserves the finds — including the bronze Tavole di Eraclea (4th century BC inscriptions of the polis's regulations on land tenure) and the Pyrrhic-era armor and weapons recovered from the battlefield.

Beyond the archaeology, Policoro is a Bandiera Blu beach destination: 8 kilometres of fine sand along the Lido di Policoro, with the WWF Bosco Pantano Riserva Naturale just inland — Italy's most important coastal-forest reserve south of Tuscany, with a sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting program documented every summer. The town is the agricultural anchor of the Metapontino plain (strawberries, kiwi, melons) and one of Basilicata's few year-round-resident coastal communes.