Rotondella

Rotondella sits on a striking conical hilltop in southeastern Basilicata, 576 metres up with a panoramic view that stretches across the entire Metapontino coastal plain to the Ionian Sea 25 km below — the local nickname is 'Balconata sullo Jonio', the Balcony of the Ionian. The 2,436-resident borgo is a tight medieval ring of streets coiling concentrically around the summit, with the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Neve (15th-c) anchoring the central piazza and the small Castello (now municipal property) at the very top of the hill. The view is the main reason to come — on clear winter days you can see the Aspromonte in Calabria 100 km south.

Rotondella is the eastern gateway to the Pollino national park (45 km west — Italy's largest national park, with the Pinus leucodermis Loricato pines that are the park's symbol), and the western gateway to the Magna Graecia coastal sites (Policoro / Heraclea is 20 km east, Metaponto further north — both have important Greek temples and museums). The economy runs on terraced olive oil — Rotondella is a Città dell'Olio, and the surrounding hill terraces produce a high-quality DOP oil that you can buy at the small frantoi in town. The food is Lucanian: peperoni cruschi (fried crispy peppers), pasta with cruschi and breadcrumbs, lagane e ceci, capocollo di Martina Franca and Lucanica sausage, and the local Aglianico from the Vulture zone 90 km north.

The Sagra dell'Olio in early November is the year's main event. Like most small Lucanian borghi, depopulation is real — from 4,500 residents in 1951 to 2,400 today.