The Literary Park of Carlo Levi

"... I threw open a door-window, I moved closer a balcony, from the eighteenth century iron railings unsafe and was almost blinded by the sudden dazzling whiteness. Below me there was a ravine, in front of the infinite expanse of dry clay, undulating in the sun as the eye, far, far away, seemed to melt into the white sky .... " With these words, the writer Carlo Levi described Aliano, a small town in Basilicata, in his masterpiece "Christ Stopped at Eboli".

We are, precisely, in a town that has a little more than a thousand souls, nestling in the Agri river and the Sauro river, about one hundred kilometers from Potenza. Here, the idea of creating a park dedicated to the historic literary author who spent years of his exile in Lucania, where he met for the first time, the reality of the rural South, and forced back into extreme poverty. Confined in Aliano from the thirties, Carlo Levi quickly learned to love its history and culture, both to want to immortalize the memory of his most famous work.

Even today, looking out the windows of small stone houses that characterize this country, you can enjoy the same beautiful view of valleys and hills, white, surrounded by ravines, much vaunted by Levi. Walking, then, in the narrow streets of its old town is easy to see the huge arches that surmount the openings of the buildings and give them a 'front' so special is that it seems almost grotesque. All this, accompanied by many wonderful smells of cooking simple as Lucan, spread through the streets of Aliano.

When entering the park literature, also, you can articulate for touring the beautiful places that were the inspiration for Charles Levi. The museum set up in the house where the writer lived in Turin, for example, involves the visitor on a journey through time, through the projection of old photographs and scenes of daily life that are intertwined with his paintings. The ground floor of the house, however, the Museum of Civilization, with agricultural implements and utensils of every day.

Last but not least, you can go real "sentimental journeys" tours organized by Levi narrated the places with set preparation, light effects and sounds that let you relive the rites and traditions almost completely disappeared.

Staff Writer