72 Magazine

Issue 5. More from my Italian odyssey in 2017.

The Craco Museum taken from the ruins of the eponymous town, in Basilicata

All photos taken on my Canon EOS 30D

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Our second excursion, courtesy of my host Donato, and accompanied by his then girlfriend Sophie, took us through stunning countryside to what remained of the town of Craco, in his little, rented Fiat. Donato explained that it was a combination of jerry-building and an earthquake in 1963 which led to the evacuation of the entire town of 1,500 people, luckily, before its spectacular collapse.

Now the only visitors allowed are on supervised guided tours, with hard-hats. Donato had organised this for us.

I hope they won’t object to me posting this wonderful photo

It really is the most amazingly magical place to visit, the views are incredible and the atmosphere is full of imagined ghosts and visual vignettes that are frozen in the past.

We were mostly lucky with the weather for the majority of our visit, but eventually the rain made us flee back to the car.

See that road snaking through the valley down below in the next photo? It has been used in lots of car advertisements over the years, from Ferrari, to Bentley to Volvo, Alpha Romeo and many more.

On our way back to Bernalda, Donato suggested that we take a look at another uniquely Italian piece of cultural heritage, a village of little conical houses, which were almost like stone tepees. Donato explained that the houses, known as trulli were designed to be deconstructed and movable, as the people who lived in them were quite nomadic (or escaping from dodgy, warrior tribes, or visiting aliens).

The village of Alberobello

Trulli, Madly, Deeply

Apparently, the Trulli people were involved in some sort of arcane form of Free-masonry. Hence the strange symbols created using different-coloured roof tiles.

Were they sending messages to extra-terrestrial visitors?

I must confess that, whilst fascinating, the village was a total tourist trap, with masses of tacky souvenirs. And we were getting hungry.

The rain eased-up and we were treated to a typical Basilicata ‘big sky’ as we headed back to Bernalda.

A ruined palazzo in Bernalda

Donato explained that all the Palazzos in this smallish town had been owned by rich merchants. They had been passed down and inherited by descendants until the communists were voted into power in Italy in the 1960s. And palazzos were deemed to be too bourgeois, and were all confiscated.

Thus, a few decades later, Donato and his then wife, were able to buy his current home - which was derelict - for a song, but, obviously, had to spend a fortune renovating it.

The same applied to the luxurious Palazzo Margherita Hotel, right next door to Donato’s, which belongs to his American/Italian cousin, a very famous film director.

I’ll leave you to work out who.

Regarding the same family, another very famous American/Italian actor called Nick denounced the same surname, so as not to be accused of nepotism.

Strangely enough, there’s a local connection. As you may have noticed, I’ve been living in the beautiful city of Bath, my home town, since I came here after 46 years in London, to look after my mum, aged 91, in 2019.

Nick owned a huge house in the famous Circus in Bath, before buying a castle outside the city. I don’t know if there was a cage containing birds (or something).

Audrey passed away last year, aged 95. I’m not going to say some stupid shit like ‘may god rest her soul’ because she was not religious (after I converted her and my stepdad Harold out of Christianity back in the 80s). Yes, I did.

We’d been brought-up as COE (Church of England) Christians. Church every Sunday, choir, Sunday school and all that hypocritical bullshit. It all evaporated, thanks to me, I’m happy to say, all that religious crap went out of the window.

My family also completely accepted my sexuality.

I’m a gay man (if you hadn’t noticed).

Meanwhile, back in Southern Italy, well, I guess you’ll have to wait for the next instalment.

And here I is.

Our next road trip was to take us into Puglia, the adjacent province to Basilicata, down in the heel of Italy.

Yes, yes, yes!

On our way to the beautiful seaside resort of Polignano A Mar.

We were wind-powered, obviously.

The weather was beautiful, Donato treated us to a fabulous al fresco lunch, then took us to meet his sculptor friend who had the most, vast, incredible studio in a warehouse with a huge terrace above that very beach! What an incredible artist’s dream.

S and D on that terrace.

Volare! A statue of Polignano A Mare’s most famous son!

Earlier, I informed you that Donato was planning to move his london artisan factory to an old, deserted 60s industrial estate outside the town of Bernalda.

He very kindly took me there to show me how things were progressing, and I was blown away by the time-warp visuals. This again was, apparently, as a result of the Communist government of Italy doing weird shit in the 1960s. Why on earth would they mothball this huge, successful industrial estate?

I questioned Donato as to whether there was a mafia involvement.

Absolutely not, he said, Basilicata was just way too poverty-stricken to interest the Mafia.

He reckoned that that the industrial estate just died due to poor management.

Now, in 2017, he was taking brave and bold steps to revive its fortunes.

This was to become his new artisan factory. I would love to know how it all worked out.

Retrotastic!

And, finally, we visited the local, rather down-at-heel but still rather romantically evocative resort of Metaponto, which is where my ill-fated cancelled train never arrived, at at the beginning of my wonderful trip. Full circle.

I didn’t tell you the story of meeting the student in Bernalda who was studying music, via Grindr, and how I helped him rewrite a song on his cheap Casio keyboard in a an evocative, deserted apartment. Perhaps some other time, when I find all the pics I took on my iPhone, on my hard drive. No porn, promise! Sorry to disappoint,

Here’s a totally random and un-Italian thing to throw into the mix. I just checked my Spotify end-of-year ‘Wrapped’ thingy. My ‘Woke Up This Morning’ double album was only released last October 2024, but it’s done pretty well so far for an album by a Septuagenarian.

I much prefer it here, complete with lyrics, original artworks, sleeve notes and credits, along with three other albums. Do please download, or stream for free.

Spotify just rips-off artists. It’s a disgrace. But at least, based on the above Spotify stats, I might earn enough to buy a double espresso!

Here’s endeth the lesson in how to live La Dolce Vita in Southern Italy, courtesy of my lovely former neighbour Donato.

I’m not sure what Issue 6 of my 72 Magazine on Substack might comprise, but I’m sure I’ll have fun digging into my archives, my present, my past or even my future (where I smell TRUE LOVE), to serve-up a menu of cultural and creative canapés.

©Steve Swindells.

Issue 6 coming soon.