The best cycling routes around Montemurro

descent that leads to the shore of the lake

After the narrow alleys and steps through the old town, the climb to the rocks is worthwhile. Even in rainy weather, the rocks are easily accessible via iron stairs. In heavy rain, every small alley becomes a rushing stream.

The Grumentum Archaeological Park preserves, within an exceptionally suggestive landscape, the remains of one of the major Roman cities of Regio III: Lucania et Bruttii. Initially a small Lucanian center allied with Rome, settled since the beginning of the 3rd century BC, it was crossed by Hannibal during the Second Punic War, when he took the side of the Carthaginians, and was the scene of a battle narrated by Livy. Following a slow process of Romanization, which provided for land assignments to the Romans through the centuriation system, the center was monumentalized starting from the middle of the 1st century BC, when it was refounded as a Roman colony. From this period onwards, it was equipped with all the typical monuments of Roman cities, in imitation of the Urbe. Today the site, a unique example in Basilicata of a Roman urban plan that is clearly legible as a whole, allows a visit through the public and private spaces of the Roman city, still delineated by the regularity of the ancient road axes. From the theater you can reach the Italic temple, the domus with mosaics and, along the paving of the main plateia, the area of the Forum with public, civil and religious buildings (Capitolium, Augusteo, Porticus, Curia, Basilica, Forensic Baths). The route then continues to the Terme Maggiori, an extraordinarily preserved thermal complex, rich in luxurious decorative apparatus (mosaics, imported marbles...), to the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, which represents the first cathedral when the center became the seat of a bishop. The route ends near the monumental amphitheater, one of the oldest masonry amphitheaters known to us. Strategically positioned on the eastern edge of the hill, it is located overlooking the Pietra del Pertusillo Lake, in the heart of the Appennino Lucano National Park. A visit to Grumentum allows you to fully appreciate the close relationship between archaeology and nature, between landscape and culture. Source Ministry of Culture Discover all our routes on www.viaggiatorelento.com

Viggiano is today the capital of Italian oil. Twenty of the 27 wells in the Agri Valley fall within its municipality, as well as the Oil Center where the gas is separated from the liquid part (as well as the sulfur), compressed and fed into the Snam distribution network. The crude oil, stabilized and stored, is instead shipped to Taranto, through a 136-kilometer long pipeline, from where it mainly heads towards Turkey. The town is crossed by an underground network of pipes that flow from the wells towards the Oil Center: every day in the bowels of the Lucanian town, 3.4 million cubic meters of gas and the equivalent of 81,868 barrels of oil travel (each barrel contains 159 liters). These figures make this valley "the largest onshore field in Western Europe", as Eni defines it. Unfortunately, we are also talking about a land repeatedly violated and extremely high levels of pollution. Eni is on trial in two cases for the environmental disasters of 2016 and 2017: 400 tons of oil leaked from the storage tanks of the Oil Center, polluting the land and water for about 26 thousand square meters. Eni initially denied and then admitted the accidents. In the land of the Black Madonna of Viggiano, Patron Saint of Basilicata, the problem is real: the Acqua dell’abete, in the woods of nearby Calvello at 1,200 meters above sea level, was found to be polluted, and even this may not be as clear as it appears. "But the faithful drink it anyway because they think it is the water of the Madonna and it cannot do any harm".... The Black Madonna of the Sacred Mount of Viggiano could be black with oil.... Too bad.... because this territory with its mountains is truly worthy of a cycling tour

Steep stairs, narrow streets, some chapels and churches are waiting to be explored. There are beautiful views from the Piazza Emilio Caizzo of the village and the surrounding countryside.

Archaeological area of the ancient Roman Grumentum.

Ancient remains of an amphitheater of Roman origin.

the archaeological park deserves a greater enhancement, difficult to visit as it is almost always closed.