Aliano is the most literary place in Basilicata. In 1935 the Turin doctor and painter Carlo Levi was exiled here; out of that year in this village came „Christ Stopped at Eboli“, the book that made southern Italy visible to the rest of the world. Levi chose to be buried here. All around, the land falls away into the calanchi, bare clay gullies where almost nothing grows.
Aliano sits at 555 metres on a clay hill above the Val d’Agri, with just under 800 inhabitants. It is a quiet place, and that is exactly why you come: anyone who has read the book finds the lanes, the faces of the houses and the landscape almost unchanged.
What makes Aliano special
Levi calls the village „Gagliano“ in the book. He arrived in 1935 as a political exile, was not allowed to leave, treated the sick despite the ban, and painted. He was released in 1936; the book appeared in 1945. After his death he was buried, at his own wish, in the cemetery of Aliano – he wanted to lie, as he put it, among his peasants. The grave is plain and easy to find.
What to see in Aliano
Casa di Confino
The house where Levi spent his exile is now a museum: rooms, furniture, documents, photographs and reproductions of his paintings. It does not take long, but you leave it different from how you went in.
Museum of rural life
Housed in a former oil mill, the museum shows tools, household objects and working implements – the world Levi described.
Parco Letterario Carlo Levi
The literary park links places in the village and the landscape to passages from the book. Signposted paths lead to the viewpoints over the calanchi.
The houses with eyes
On several old houses two windows sit like eyes above a door that serves as a nose – the „case con gli occhi“. Levi describes them as faces; locally it is said they were meant to ward off harm. Whether that is old belief or later interpretation cannot be established; the image remains.
Church of San Luigi Gonzaga
The 17th-century church with its baroque altar stands in the village centre.
The calanchi
The clay hills around Aliano are among the most striking badlands in Italy. Paths lead from the village to the edge; sturdy shoes are needed, and after rain the tracks are slippery and best avoided.
Festivals
Since 2012 the festival „La Luna e i Calanchi“ has been held in August: literature, music and encounters in the landscape, with events running into the night. If you are in the area in August, check the dates.
Getting there from Matera
About 85 to 95 kilometres by car, but a good hour and a half to two hours – the final stretch is winding mountain road. Aliano is effectively unreachable in a day by public transport. Allow for the return journey: after sunset the drive is tiring.
Best time to visit
April to June and September to October. In winter it can be cold and foggy at this altitude; at the height of summer the landscape offers no shade at all.
A day in Aliano
Set off early, spend the morning at the Casa di Confino and the museum, eat in the village, and in the afternoon follow the literary park out to the calanchi and the cemetery. To see more of this landscape, combine the drive with Craco, the abandoned village on the same kind of hill.
