Italy · IT

Valle delle scale

Valle delle Scale — the “Valley of the Steps” — is a shaded, green picnic woodland on the edge of San Giorgio Lucano, in the far south-west of the Matera province, set at the foot of the Pollino National Park. It is the kind of place locals escape to on a hot day: a fenced high-trunk forest threaded with footpaths, fitted out as a municipal equipped park with barbecue niches, long wooden picnic tables, bocce courts and a simple “percorso natura” trail, all gathered around a chalet-style restaurant. Beyond everyday picnics, the glade has a festive side: for several summers it hosted the Sarmento in Fermento eco-festival, where the clearing filled with reggae and roots music, free-climbing, aerial dance and art installations, with open camping under the trees. For walkers and sightseers, it makes an easy, cool base from which to reach the hilltop borgo of San Giorgio Lucano, the lunar clay badlands of the calanchi, the lake of Monte Cotugno and the trails of Pollino.