Holiday homes in Southern Italy - private accommodation to rent

The tip of the Italian peninsula, also known as Calabria and Basilicata or Lucania is the true south of Italy, a mountainous area which has long struggled with various types of adversity. There are some isolated treasures here, the west coast, forested highlands and the Sila plateau. The earthquakes here have left innumerate ruins across the landscape. Basilicata is little visited by travellers, and immortalised as a backwater of Italy in Carlo Levi’s ‘Christ stopped at Eboli’. The region has started to reinvent itself of late, with the town of Matera drawing in visitors. For centuries its people have inhabited cave homes – or sassi – cut into the stone. These dwellings started life as churches, and many still have frescoes lining their walls. The capital of the area, Potenza, was also a haunt of the famous ruler Frederick II.