Fifty steps cut into the rock by Norman hands, going up to where a lookout once watched the valley. You climb it the same way he did.
About fifty narrow steps cut straight into the sandstone climb to the highest point of a Norman-Swabian fort, where a lookout watched the Basento valley. It is not a viewing platform built for visitors. It is the original way up, and you climb it holding the rock.
The village itself is wedged inside the rock spires of the Lucanian Dolomites in a way that has no equivalent in Italy.
Bari (BRI), about a hundred and thirty kilometres, a little over two hours. No useful train.
In July and August the zip line between here and Pietrapertosa fills the village. Come in May or September. The access roads are narrow, parking is minimal, and the stair is not for anyone with vertigo.
Sources: tuttitalia.it/basilicata/26-castelmezzano/ ; borghipiubelliditalia.it/borgo/castelmezzano/
Each town is a day. The order of the drives, the nights and the meals is the part that ruins most first trips to small Italy. Twelve of them in one guide, free, and a letter a week after that.
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