Before fame came to
Bernalda in Basilicata
A few years back Bernalda in Basilicata was a sleepy rural town like many others in this part of Italy. Nothing could be further from Hollywood, and that may be one of the star attractions.
The first times, I visited Bernalda it was kind of hard to find an open café or gelateria. The main street had the usual assortment of banks, barbers and shops selling stationary, spectacles and swimsuits. Women were shelling beans outside their front doors, and toothless men gathered in small groups anywhere they could find a seat and some shadow. It was quiet with an unassuming, subdued kind of charm.
Already then there were rumours about the regista americano, who had bought a house in the town, where his paternal grandfather was born, but I had no idea of who it might be, until Francis Ford Coppola opened a luxury hotel in the centre of Bernalda and Sofia Ford Coppola invited Hollywood to Basilicata for her wedding.
Bernalda 2.0
Since then journalists from all over the world have stayed at Palazzo Margherita in Bernalda and written about the remote, underappreciated and stunningly beautiful region. If they stayed more than one night they would find themselves within easy reach of wide sandy beaches along the Ionian Sea, World Heritage cave dwellings in Matera, the Greek temple at Metaponto, fascinating ghost towns and towns with an extraordinary history like Aliano, Tricarico and Pisticci, and a mesmerizing landscape of vineyards, olive groves, eagles and limestone karsts and ravines.
And unlike the Bernalda I visited around year 2000, there now seems to be a choice of nice pizzerie and restaurants serving good local food.
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And has it spoiled the place or given it a new lease of life, do you think?
Julia
The hotel is small and Bernalda is very far off the beaten track, so I don’t think it makes a lot of difference. But the local restaurant scene has had a revival.
Thanks for this geography lesson and little background of this charmingly sleepy town that came to be celebrated now. Love this sort of posts learning a little bit about the world!
Thanks:)
What a thing to happen to a quiet unassuming town! I’d definitely like to visit :)
Everything is improved by having more choices for pizza. I’m pretty sure that’s a rule.
It’s interesting to follow a place over time, isn’t it… – see how it develops, and the ever-increasing and unavoidable influence of outside forces, Hollywood directors or not.
That’s what makes me tickle yes – and the reason I keep going back to the same places and look for ever diminishing details.
my best compliments for your notes upon the little villages of the poor basilicata , greetings from san chirico raparo ; goodbye !
Thank you very much. I really cherish greetings from the locals:)
Bernalda is about 15min from my holiday apartment so I have been there many times, Basilicata is a very interesting part of Italy and I love it.
Not a bad place for a holiday apartment. I understand your enthusiasm.