Seasons in Basilicata: A Year in a Southern Italian Hill Village

A year in the life of a remote Southern Italian hill town rich with local characters, strange pagan-laced customs, and very different from the more gentrified northern Italy of Tuscany and Umbria. Award-winning travel writer/illustrator, David Yeadon and his wife Anne embarked on an exploration of the wild mountainous "lost word" of Basilicata in the arch of Italy's boot. What was intended as a brief sojourn turned into a far longer and far more intriguing residency across the seasons. The Yeadons made a home here in the ancient and alluring hill village of Aliano where Carlo Levi, author of the world-renowned book Christ Stopped at Eboli, was imprisoned by Mussolini during part of World War II for anti-fascist activities. They became immersed in today's rich tapestry of people, lifeways, traditions, festivals, the rituals and rhythms of the grape and olive harvests, unique culinary delights, and other enticing peculiarities of place. At the same time, they discovered that much of the pagan strangeness Carlo Levi and other notable authors revealed here, still lurks beneath the beguiling surface of Basilicata. Evocative illustrations and richly colorful, often humorous tales of life in their hill village form the framework for Seasons in Basilicata. Described by one reviewer as "one of our best travel writers," David Yeadon has shifted focus in this book to a far more intimate portrait of a single uniquely intriguing place. Tim Cahill found Yeadon "a very congenial travelling companion," Jan Morris praised his books as "full of strange, moving and entertaining experiences," and Kirkus celebrated them as "big, vigorous and hugely entertaining."