In Basilicata, in the evocative setting of Pollino National Park, it exists a place where the interrupted flow marks a path which consists of culture, history and landscape: Sarmento Valley.
An ascensional trip, an intertwining of natural and artificial flows, made by watercourses that intersect and cultures that endure in the history and express themselves in the everyday life. This scenery becomes the stage of contemporary art thanks to the ambitious Arte Pollino project.

The place was chosen by the artist Giuseppe Penone to realize a work of art unique in its kind. It is the Vegetal Theatre, a space where the nature is the scene of itself but also the landscape that is represented by a human creation.
The whole route is pervaded with a constant contamination between man and nature.

Our trip starts in Senise, from the special observation point of the artificial Montecotugno lake's large barrage.
The dam was realized between the '70s and '80s for the water provisioning of Metaponto area and Apulia, it is able to contain more than 500 millions cubic metres of water and with its about 2km barrage it is one of the most impressive in Europe made in packed earth.

Along the right side, among orchards and vineyard, there is a panoramic path, and it is also walkable and open to the bicycle.

In a landscape covered for the most by the Meditteranean scrub, among oaks and lentisks, it raises in a commanding position the Avifaunal Observatory. The structure, realized by Pollino National Park Body, is a studies and researches centre for the numerous species of the place: little owls, herons, mallards, red woodpecker, blackbird, kites and crows.

It is an evocative place, which is in a prevailing position compared to the sorrounding territory, with a large view on the horizon and on the crossing point of the legendary Sinni river, celebrated by the Greek civilization, in the great reservoir: an ermitage sorrounded by the silence of a nature that continuously dialogues with itself and the mankind.

Continuing the trip, crossing the old 92 Road, in a panoramic hirpin turns way, next to some old manor farms, cases of rural memories, you come upon a new scenery, as a prelude of Sarmento Valley: the Timpe of Noepoli.
A different landscape from the others, with a movie fascination; a landscape that is called “little Canyon" by many people.
Timpa Forata raises up, with its particular shape patterned by the atmospheric agents erosion on sandly creations.

The path dominated by the Timpa is a borderland landscape.
The border betweeen two valleys: Sinni Valley, with its overlook on the North-east side towards Senise, the reservoir of Montecotugno and the Mount Alpi in the North-west; in the South-west there is the prelude of Sarmento Valley, to which you arrive across an important access point, that is another stop of our trip.

This is the old gallery of the state road 92, a link desired by the man, who created a photographic objective snapping, as in a voluntary exposure, the summit where Noepoli raises on.

The ancient State of Noia, named like this since the 16^th century, with the advent of Fabrizio Pignatelli, is in a territory where it has been possible to find different settlements since the 9^th century b.C.
The old town centre dates back to the 13^th century.
Up to the living unit of Noepoli, there is "La Torretta" lookout, from where you eyes wide on a larger view that shows, as a great natural stage, the Sarmento-scene.
Below, your eyes are going to admire a breathtaking view: it is the torrent, the place of the Vegetal Theatre by Giuseppe Penone.

Theatre: place of the performance.

A point from which it is possible to see how the natural watercourse branches off and join up in some stretches further on, creating an evocative interweaving, just as over the centuries, migratory flows made Sarmento Valley the cradle of different cultures. The main cultural identity is the arbereshe one.

A performance that becomes an everyday life aspect. An everyday life aspect that becomes a performance. We are in San Costantino and San Paolo, the municipalities that are characterized by a strong and preserved identity linked to the arbereshe culture, which was transplanted in this territory by the exiled Albanians in the second half of the 17^th century, and still withstands the erosive process in the years, completely showing itself in the Museum of Arbereshe Civilization, which is opened in San Paolo Albanese since 1984.

A culture that protects its past: the uniform of this survival is the typical costume. There are three kinds of it, the daily, the feast, the wedding ones, whic differ from each other. The most distinctive one is the female costume for the feasts, which is different from the daily one because of its particular headdresses (këza e cofa) that arranged by wrought filigree hatpins, with a red wollen cloth and numerous pleats of the skirt at the waist, and it holds thanks to two satin cloth-braces.

That community of the Arbereshe from Sarmento Valley is strongly rooted in the Greek-Byzantine rite, which has its basis on the wedding ceremony, one of the most interesting in the arbereshe civil life. In the scene there is an argument that develops through an alternate chant between the bride's and the bridegroom's followers.

So, the whole town looks as an “alive museum”, as a theatre with bewitching figures acting, which seem to have been taken away from a distant world: going along a tangle of narrow streets and alleys, it is still possible to come upon old shops, where the clever hands of the last craftsman mould the wood and the stone.

The route coninues in an ascensional trip towards Pollino's summits: Terranova with its Timpa delle Murge, where the history of the human culture leaves its place to a more ancient history.

An obligatory crossing to reach the Timpa is the Earl House - Casa del Conte, a place full of accomodation facilities that are the sign of the tourist vocation of this territory. The hospitality is the norm here, and it is still possible to totally enjoy the familiar atmosphere. This locality is the prelude to the natural show of Timpa delle Murge, the last stop of this enchanting route.
The traveller will walk on pieces of oceanic crusts of millions years ago. Touch is triggered off.
Glances are insufficient, the route is a trip in which all the senses are necessary.
Landscape is varied and nature is wild.
Timpa delle Murge is the natural epilogue of the wonderful trip that the tourist/actor performs going along this route, keeping with him the magic of the experience, the stupor for the discovering and the view of the nature.