Exile

The fascists banished various non-believers, including some business rivals, to this part of Italy Basilicata. Amongst them was the writer Carlo Levi, imprisoned here between 1935 and ’36.
It is hard to comprehend the unmitigated poverty of the peasant life he found. At one point the region was was an extremely prosperous trading centre on the Mediterranean circuit, but this all changed when the Spanish and Lombards arrived. They taxed everyone so harshly that many of the prosperous left, leaving the poor behind with nothing to do but rely on the produce of the land. Living at 850m with their fields on the plain almost vertically below, meant that they could spend 4hours a day commuting and at the end of it the clay soil was not very fertile: absentee governments which forced the larger estates to grow wheat soon found that the yield was insufficient to pay taxes. Only olives grow. The peasants endured even through the endemic malaria which was only eradicated during the 1980's. Child mortality was 50% and survivors were afflicted by the disease and malnourishment so they had little to live for. But they endured enough to give CL the title of his book, "Christ stopped at Eboli", which was a popular refrain to explain their semi-pagan, unpromising lives.
Since he had a medical degree, CL was not allowed to read and paint as he would have liked, but was coerced into treating whatever he could with what little pharmaceuticals were around. For this as much as for publicising their plight, he earned their eternal gratitude and the enmity of those 'middle classes' (priests, doctors, government officials,) who feasted on the misery of the poor.
Now, perhaps thanks to the literati who make the pilgrimage, the town is being restored and tarted up. The car allows residents to escape and the small streets all have an Ape 50 parked in them.
As you leave the village you pass the “Fossa del Carabiniere” (policeman’s grave) because once some bandits threw a drunk Carabiniere down the steep slope.Read more