Via Aldo Moro, 32
Phone +39 0971 741076
giuseppevergaglia@libero.it

The cathedral of Acerenza is one of the most dreamlike places in Southern Italy. It was built on a sheer drop from the rocky ridge to the sea which dominates the black volcanic soil of Lucania as far as the Murge area. Here you can enjoy a breathtaking view and this imposing building which has the signs of the history of this town built in a strategic position. This monument, as the other churches and convents, isn’t well known. It isn’t easily reachable but it is worthy of the journey because you will have the possibility to visit a corner of Southern Italy as the traditional oleographs described it in the last decades: the old women wear black dresses, only men are in the streets, some donkeys are drawn by peasants in the medieval alleys and tractors go backwards and forwards. The main products are oil and the wine produced by the “Basilium Winers”, one of the four regional cooperatives which defended the viticulture in the Sixties. They defended the grape price as the dealers tried to make them fall threatening not to buy this product which was difficult to find. So you can visit the cathedral, the Basilium, the winery located in the most Southern area of the Vulture which proposes a good relationship between quality and price. You can stop at this small trattoria to have lunch. It is only open at the weekends, or else you have to book. Here you can find “cavatielli” (it is a kind of pasta which is hand-made using three fingers) in the “acheruntina” style, that is with a sausage “ragù” sauce, kid and lamb meat and “cardoncelli” mushrooms. You can also eat traditional desserts. You will have a very rich and good lunch. You will enjoy the old tastes and those dishes which were prepared during holidays in the peasant homes. Canio Vergaglia is in the kitchen and his wife and his son help him. He returned home after fifteen years spent working in Milan. The family proposes the oil and the wine produced on their own, the pasta is home-made. You will roughly spend 15 Euros.

How to arrive
From Potenza turn down into the by-pass to Melfi and leave the Pietragalla-Acerenza exit. The trattoria is at the entrance of the town.