Sense

The metaphor of Anish Kapoor's work was the impulse to start thinking, identifying and proposing new views on the Mercure Valley's area. His work opens a new artistic point of view on our territory, from the "inside" of the territory. In this work, in fact, it is important the contact with the earth, to go inside it - as the visitor of the work will do, and this links us to what is, still today, the strong experience of the inhabitants. The sculpture is monumental, it presents the relativity of human dimension, the physical and historical dimensions.

It is important the concept of the depth which is explorable from different points of view, both the historical one - which links us to the earth's essence, represented by the geologic stratification, and to the human essence, that is to say his settlement in the territory, - and the conceptual one, when it leads to a participatory movement that allows us to go to the past and then to the present with conscience and awareness renewals.

Like Anish Kapoor wanted to tell the history through his "Earthen Cinema", so we will tell you a trip in our territoty.

These concepts helped to locate nodal places of the territory that would be able to tell about how nature and man left their prints. So, places are told through the concepts of new original stratification and views.

Nodal places of the tale are Castelluccio, Latronico, Rotonda and Viggianello.

Levels that tell the history of nature and man in the different places are three. The first one represents the ancient and the depth (morphological erosion, prehistoric sites), the second one is the settlement of the man, his interaction with the earth which bears many fruits (gastronomy, rural landscape, old town centres), the third one is the man discovering the nature (the mountain protected by the park).

Our trip starts in Latronico, a place which dominates a large horizon, 3Km far from Sinnica, a territory with extraordinary environmental resources. It is protected by the rocky mass of Mount Alpi (1900mt) which cherishes the shady peace of Fagosa, Malboschetto, realms of wild animals as the wolf. All along the routes by the mountains from Pianafiorita-Teduri, the fountains are numerous, ideal paths for trekking with panoramic views on gorges and ravines, ancient marble quarries. Downhill the sulphur-magnesic water springs are abundant in the Calda (23° C- famous since the ancient age for their curative properties) with a modern thermal complex.

In Latronico, we imagined two ideal routes able to highlight the peculiarities of the territory, contextualized in the sense of the work.

First route, purely naturalistic, starts from Contrada Iannazzo and looking from underneath the stone quarry, at an altitude of 980mt., it is possible to see a fossil fish, it measures about 235 cm. in length from the rostrum to the caudal fins and about 95 cm. in height from the dorsal fin to the ventral one.

You arrive to the fossil fish through: the SS 104 and the Toduro comunal road, near Calda locality. Successively, the tour continues towards the artificial reservoir in Cogliandrino, named Masseria Nicodemo dam. A place of charming beauty, that shows how the man settled respecting nature and taking advantage from it.

Following the path, you reach one of the most important observation point, Mount Alpi, and from its top it is possible to observe simultaneously: the Tyrrhenian coast and the main tops of Cilento on the West side, the high part of Agri Valley in the North, Pollino massif in thoe South and in particular conditions you are also able to see the Sila, the complex system of argillaceous ravines that develop towards the Ionian Sea in the South part.

From the slopes of the Mount Alpi, crossing a path, you arrive in the earth of the Faggeta wood, named Malboschetto, where, in the right season, you can pick up: strawberries, mushrooms, blackberry, of which the wood is full of. The lovely beechwood, which is suitable for picnic and cool relief areas from the summer heat, because of its vault that during the summer is so thick, and it lets just some sun's rays attain the ground. Not little surprise will be caused by the harmonious relationship between this environment and the nature, in those who avidly, almost aside, without invading and oppressing it, look at it.

The old town centre is characterized by a poor architecture, with the houses really close one to another like an amphitheatre, without any order or symmetry. Streets are winding and tight and just one, Dante Alighieri Street, goes across the whole old town centre, from Umberto I square until

After the first route, we propose you another one which starts in the Grotte. The five caves in Calda locality are an important proof of the Southern Italy's prehistory, in particular of the period that goes from Mesolithic (8000 B.C.) to the Bronze Age (1300 B.C.). In this locality, we have the opportunity to visit 3 Museums located in the same structure, that allows us to have a tour in the history of civilization from Latronico.

In this specific case, they are: the Civic Archaeological Museum, the Civic Ethnographic Museum, the Thermalism Museum. From here, it is easy to reach the important site of Thermal baths, located in the earth of the Ecological Thermal area of Pollino - Sirino - Maratea, an uncontaminated place of the Basilicata green part, that expresses itself on the highest level exactly in National Park of Pollino.

The Thermal baths of Latronico represent one of the exciting moment for the local reality, the therapeutic virtues of these waters have very likely been known since the prehistory.

From the thermal baths of Lucania you can go down towards the Sinni River, which raises at an altitude of 1380 metres, from the Serra della Giumenta, on the east side of Mount Sirino-Papa.

From here, you have two routes:

• The first one runs along the river, crossing a bridge, and following the path that links contrada Preti to Castelluccio Superiore, you reach the valley of Peschiera torrent that you can go along until Magnano Wood locality. Then walking along its green sloughs or stopping along its course, it is possible to admire and meet rare animal species (the otter, the heron). Peschiera Torrent is another important point, because it is rich in springs and hygrophorus plants. Vegetation is composed by a broad range of species, Turkey Oaks, Beeches and Neapolitan Alders, Poplars. Among the most important animal species, there are the otter, the Deer, the salamander "with the glasses", the river crab, the green woodpecker, the goshawk, the black squirrel. It is worth remembering that the area, between the 1860/70 was the scene of some bloody episodes of Brigandage.

• Second route finishes with a walk in the main and evocative streets of Latronico until the Old town centre, where there are some points that allow you to enjoy the landscape which doesn't disappoint its observers in none of the year's season.

Second stop of our tour is another town in the earth of Pollino, in Castelluccio. Also in this case, the route follows the sense of Anish Kooper's work, that allows us to have a tour from the inside, going across human, physical and historical dimensions.

You start from the lauree of merkurion, natural caves with clear signs of the human presence, they were lived in by the Basiliani monks in the 11^th century, San Nilo's favourite hermitage. To get there, you have to take the Popilia, an ancient Roman street, characterized by a dry-stone wall, vestiges of the Roman civilization.

Continuing on the same street you reach one of the most audacious manufacture of the Southern railways, the helicoidal tunnel which is part of the 16 km-railway that from Prestieri arrived to Laino (the first town in Calabria)

As Latronico, Castelluccio gave us the possibility to create a new purely naturalistic route, due to the presence of woods, springs, rivers and not for least the Loricato Pine, on the summit of Mount Zaccana.

The route follows an upward excursus from Madonna del Soccorso Sanctuary, a place of charming and rare beauty at an altitude of 1100 m., to the summit of Zaccana Mount, at an altitude of 1680m., where the impressive Loricato Pine finds its natural habitat.

We discovered the vitality of the work in the morphology of our territory, which gave us the chance to connect again to the work itself; for this reason, our routes continuously go inside to finally re-emerge, with the unconscious awareness of a different inner rebirth.

Viggianello is our next nodal place, it also is rich of natural, historical and cultural elements, able to come with us in the history of our country. The historical continuity of these places also symbolizes the cultural one, in fact we have the Lauree as a first point of interest, the positive and kindly mark of the relationship between the man and the nature.

Going back up to the old town centre, going across the narrow streets that only allow a pedestrian walk, it appears the impressive authoritativeness of the medieval Castle, whose terraces open your eyes wide towards the summits of the massif. The particular attention of the man towards the nature is the peculiarity of this area, the Mercure spring, the last stop of our excursion. Our walk finishes in Rotonda, the base of Pollino Park that allows us to tell the whole sense that we wanted to give to "our trips". Thanks to the Pollino naturalistic museum we can tell about the fauna of Mercure's Valley during 500.000 years ago, in particular about an elefant, an hippopotamus and a rhinoceros. Also in this place the interaction between the man and the nature expressed itself in the realization of the first living unit, with local stone's adorned houses created by the school of stonecutters from Rotonda.

Going on, you can reach the top of the hill where there are the ruins of a fortification and you can also admire a wonderful landscape of the Mercure's valley, sorrounded by the mountains reliefs of the Pollino massif.