Castelmezzano, take the long way.

There is a spectacular photograph waiting in Castelmezzano. There is also a route that asks for more than the photograph. Between this town and Pietrapertosa, the Percorso delle Sette Pietre reworks an old rural path as a sequence of artistic and literary encounters.

The municipality describes a trail of roughly two kilometres, inspired by oral storytelling and Mimmo Sammartino’s book Vito ballava con le streghe. Its seven installations make the journey a way to read a landscape through the stories people attached to it.

Distance alone is misleading here. The official description puts Pietrapertosa at 920 metres, the stream valley at 660 and Castelmezzano at 770. This is a descent and a climb, rather than a level promenade between neighbouring squares. Check the route and present conditions before setting out.

For the journal, that is a compelling alternative to treating the Lucanian mountains as a single dramatic backdrop. Start with a street, understand the route and decide how much walking suits the day. The connection between two communities is as interesting as the view of either one.