Basilicata: Matera Palazzo Lanfranchi and Pisticci

We sleep badly, worried about the bad weather alert and undecided as to whether perhaps it would be better to leave at 5 a.m. to avoid it. In the end we compromise, checking how much it is actually raining far too often to reconcile sleep. It drizzles intermittently during the night and doesn’t start raining properly until we leave at about nine oclcock. After which, it rains, you know, ordinary steady rain. Nothing to justify a red alert.

But by now we have changed our route. Oppido and Acerenza have been replaced by a no hassle visit to Palazzo Lanfranchi in Matera which we didn’t visit during our stay in Matera last year. The ticket costs 5 euros per person. 

The ground floor houses the enormous painting Lucania ’61 by Carlo Levi, who wrote “Cristo si è fermato a Ebola”. It’s made more interesting by video footage of various experts explaining the picture, which centered around the figure of Rocco Scotellaro, poet, writer and politician and mayor of the village of Tricarico during the time when Levi was exiled in Aliano in Basilicata in 1935/6, together with actual photos of some of the figures in the picture. There is also a temporary exhibition of pictures HOSTIA. PIER PAOLO PASOLINI by Nicola Verlato. 

On the first floor there are some beautiful examples of medieval religious art, the Collezione D'Errico paintings by Neapolitan artists from the 17th/18th century and more paintings by Carlo Levi and Luigi Guerricchio.

When we come out it is still raining, so we get the car and head out to a new Eurospin which has opened since our last stay in Matera in October 2021. There is even a section selling ready food so we get a couple of arancini and some spicy chicken wings as well as Focaccia Barese and eat them in the car watching the light drizzle.

After lunch we drive to Pisticci, where everything is closed for the afternoon, not even a bar open for coffee, and even the 24-hour vending machines are being refilled. Eventually we manage to down some caffeine and take a short walk around Pisticci looking at the view of Rione Dirupo but not to the sea because there is low cloud. 

A gloomy day which probably leaves Pisticci not at its best. But no where near enough rain to justify a red alert. Before going to our accommodation, we stop at the very pleasant “La sanità del Casale” sanctuary, which is pretty, in the warm local stone. It, too, is closed but it was worth a stop to see the outside.

We arrive at Casa Olivia on time. It’s pleasant, a new building which is tastefully furnished with a view of Pisticci, and the church we stopped at, from the terrace in front of the owner’s house.