Through gullies, gorges and grottoes - Basilicata, Italy

Beyond the dam of the Pertusillo, the river Agri drops down into a narrow valley, leaving behind it the lush greenery of the forests and the green fields, flowing through a spectacular gorge overlooked by two impressive towering rocks, and the scenery suddenly changes.   Weare now in the land of gullies, of hard, clayey and cracked terrain, with the occassionalsolitary oak to break up the horizontal lines of the landscape. Weare in the lands of Grottino di Roccanova, a PGI wine that extracts all the aromas and mysteries from these secret places.  We are at the foot of the Convent of S. Maria Orsileo, a jewel of a baroque art which renounces pretentiousness but not poetry here, creating and unforgettable spot, an ancestral reference to the deepest piety.  By now we have reached the southern limits of the park, where the Agri follows its coursre unti it plunges ontothe sandy shores of the Metapontino.