If you have a passion for Italian cheese, then you could have the time of your life at the Locanda del Buon Formaggio or Good Cheese Inn in Tito, near Potenza. The owners also run a dairy farm, so you will be able to gorge on delicious Italian cheeses like gorgonzola, caciocavallo, burrata and fior di latte. The place has 11 lovely rooms (single and double rooms) and the price is quite affordable; a night there will cost you only 60/70 euros per night (breakfast included).

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The world of Italian food and wine matching is vast and has many pleasures, if you have the time and the curiosity to explore. Today we look at Italian cheese “caciocavallo” and the possible Italian wine options to match.

Caciocavallo is a cheese from southern Italy, now a DOP protected production, made from cow’s milk. While it looks like a mini provolone, the cheese comes from the “podolica” cow breed, which is semi-wild breed that grazes on all sorts of natural and wild vegetation.

The areas in which caciocavallo is mostly produced are the high altitude regions of Molise, Sila, Campano and Puglia. This particular Italian cheese must age a minimum of three months, and anywhere up to two years. See after the jump for the wine-cheese match.

Continue reading: Food and wine matching: Italian cheese and the best southern Italian wine

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After looking at the abandoned casino on Lake Como, at Consonno, here is another ghost town in Italy, Craco in Basilicata. It’s the same kind of quiet, desolated place as Pripyat in the Ukraine, or Yashima in Japan.

A landslide caused the evacuation of Craco in 1963, and the town was transferred to Craco Peschiera. The town was one measuring about 2,000 people, and the landslide seemed to be caused by infrastructure works, including sewerage and hydro stations.

Craco has since remained intact, in a rare example of a true ghost town in Italy, unique in its kind. You can wander the streets and look into the houses that were left as they were, both those of poorer people and those of more genteel status.

Some scenes from Mel Gibson’s film The Passion, were filmed in the deserted streets and alleys of this town. When visiting Craco, people normally go to the Castello tower, entering some houses and buildings along the way, before walking down to the San Nicola church to enjoy the stunning scenery.

Photo | kirtaph from Flickr and luigi.cannella, Flickr.

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The above video takes us on a tour of Matera, a city of rock in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Fabled in cinema, the “sassi” or “rocks” of Matera have become a symbol of Italy’s south. The town has been carved out of natural rock and the buildings share the hillside with natural grottos and rock formations.

This video is put together by Non Solo Moda, and while in Italian it might inspire you to visit. A tour of the Città dei Sassi takes in the five star hotel of Palazzo Gattini, an aperitif at the 19° Buca Winery and dinner at Baccanti restaurant.

Matera, with its link to cinema and long history, is fast becoming a crossroads for modern art (as seen in the studio of Paola Di Serio) and tourism, and ancient Italy. Why not take a look?

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I recently read how much the Italian wine aglianico was making a name for itself in the US, and here’s another example of the Italian product being increasingly appreciated.

Paola Jadeluca from Repubblica Affari & Finanza has cited a New York Times article in which the famous wine journalist Eric Asimov looks at the Aglianico del Vulture wine from Basilicata. The red wine, in particular the Carato Venusio from the Cantina sociale di Venosa (a co-operative cellar) is said to be able to compete with the best of Chianti, Brunello and Barolo.

The fame that Carato Venusio has given to the Aglianico del Vulture name in northern Europe, England and Denmark, now takes to America. At Venosa more than 900 ha of vineyards belong to 500 different collaborators, with the largest having only 15 ha. Working together, with an investment of two and a half million euros and an effort called “the bottle project”, they’ve taken the base value wine at only 10 USD to the pages of the New York Times.

Continue reading: Italian wine Aglianico di Venosa mentioned by Eric Asimov in New York Times

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This picture somehow fails to convey the nostalgic atmosphere that one can breathe when walking through the streets of the Garbatella district in Rome. There are not many tourists around, but the Romans love it, knowing that if they want to eat out, this is the place to be. Tanto pe’ Magnà in via San Giustino de Jacobis 9/15 is a nice restaurant or rather ‘trattoria’ which offers real Roman dishes .

The menu features Pappardelle with ragout , spaghetti with Cacio cheese and black pepper, orecchiette (a variety of pasta) with zucchini and mussels; as a second course, the archetypal Roman beef stew: coda alla vaccinara or oxtail stew. In short, something you can’t afford to miss; but remember to tuck a napkin around your neck if you don’t want to have your shirt splashed all over with tomato sauce. To finish off this perfect meal I would recommend tiramisu - simple but delicious! All this will cost you only 45 euros which, in my opinion, is superb value.

Restaurant Tanto per magnà
Via San Giustino de Jacobis 9/15 - Rome
Phone number: tel. 0651607422
http://www.tantopemagna.it

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This 3-minute video directed by Michele Russo shows us the wild and pristine beauty of Basilicata, a region in Southern Italy famous for its enchanting landscapes; but once again there’s more to it than meets the eye; in fact the director employed the voice of Francis Ford Coppola to narrate the history of this beautiful land where Francis Ford Coppola’s family has its roots.

The film documentary also shows us the small village of Bernarda, Coppola family’s hometown and then from this rather remote place we start a symbolic journey through the private history of this famous Italian-American family who took the world by storm. Its soundtrack, a beautiful ballad called Morrison’s jig , is sung by Giuliana De Donno, a local singer. We thank Ekkimosi who posted the video on youtube

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In the words of the guy who jumps over the edge “o mio diooooooo!!!” (oh my God). This is definitely not an activity for anyone who’s afraid of heights, but this Volo d’Angelo (Flight of the Angel) has all the signs of being an experience you would never forget.

Basically you’re harnassed onto a kind of enormous flying fox suspended between the peak’s of two towns - Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa. And this is the way you fly through the Lucane Dolomites, located in the south of Italy in Basilicata, discovering things from a very different point of view.

The “Volo” is planned like this: you arrive in the town and visit it a little before “flying” up to the next point of departure. You visit the second town, enjoy the view and taste some typical products of the area before flying back again clipped to a different cable.

You can try out the flight on two different ropes at heights of either 118 metres or 130 metres. The first is called San Martino and leaves from Pietrapertosa (altitude of 1020m) and it arrives in Castelmezzano (at 859 metres) after travelling the 1415 and reaching a maximum speed of 110 km/hr. The Peschiere line lets you go at Castelmezzano at 1019 metres and you arrive in Pietrapertosa (888 metres), reaching 120 km/hr over a distance of 1452 metres.

Video: AlessioHypocrisy

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