On the way west is Graco. We have to go there too, don't we?
Craco Vecchia, the abandoned old town, is perched on a rock and is known as a ghost town. After a landslide in 1963, the inhabitants of Craco were resettled. Landslides, presumably triggered by construction work, almost completely destroyed the town between 1959 and 1972. After the earthquake of 1980, the old town was finally abandoned.
Since then, the city has been decaying and being reclaimed by nature.
Incidentally, the spooky-looking village has repeatedly served as a film set. The ghost town is said to contain four medieval palaces, the church Chiesa Madre di San Nicola Vescovo and the well-preserved lookout tower Torre Normanna. The only thing we can't do is look at all this: it's off limits!
Normally, you can only visit Craco with a guide. Since June 2021, however, guided tours are no longer offered and it is also forbidden to enter on your own. So we strolled along the fence and sent our flying eye skywards to get a few impressions of the city.
Somehow it was eerie to watch the decay. The wind blew hard on our ears, loose shutters squeaked and the lonely donkeys grazing in the abandoned Graco let themselves be stroked. Unfortunately, we had neither fruit nor vegetables with us, so we had to stop at petting.
The landscape around the city is characterised by so-called calanchi. These sugar-coated blob-like hills remind us of Cappadocia. As far as the eye can see, we see these bizarre formations shaped by wind and water and think of a lunar landscape. Well, we haven't been to the moon yet, but that's how we imagine it.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
Do you think our travel experiences might be of interest to others? Then you can share the Share post quietly. By e-mail or however you want to do it.
In addition, if you haven't already done so, you can use our Newsletter subscribe. Here you will receive all our experiences in your mailbox whenever we publish something new or once a week on Fridays: live-pur.ch/newsletter
We are also very happy to hear your views, your tips or your questions. Just comment on the post!
