Basilicata Weddings | Venues & Planning

Basilicata is Italy's most evocative secret—a region of ancient landscapes, dramatic contrasts, and raw Mediterranean beauty that few international visitors have discovered. Straddling the instep of Italy's boot between Puglia and Calabria, this wild, mountainous land is home to Matera, whose UNESCO-listed sassi (cave dwellings carved into limestone ravines) have been inhabited for over 9,000 years and served as the backdrop for Hollywood films from Pier Paolo Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Matthew to the latest Bond film. A Basilicata wedding offers a sense of timelessness, exclusivity, and cinematic grandeur that no other Italian destination can match.

Basilicata's landscape is strikingly diverse: the honey-coloured ravines and cave-studded gorges of Matera, the soaring peaks of the Lucanian Dolomites, ancient forests in the Pollino National Park (Italy's largest), and two distinct coastlines—the wild Tyrrhenian shore around Maratea with its secret coves and the long, sandy Ionian beaches stretching from Metaponto to Policoro. The interior is a tapestry of medieval hill towns, volcanic lakes, and vast wheat fields that glow golden at sunset.

Basilicata's culture runs deep—this is a land of ancient rituals, Norman castles, and Greek heritage. Matera's transformation from a symbol of southern Italian poverty (famously described by Carlo Levi in Christ Stopped at Eboli) to European Capital of Culture 2019 is one of Italy's great redemption stories. The region celebrates vibrant festivals including Matera's Festa della Bruna, and its artisan traditions—hand-carved tufa stone, hand-thrown ceramics, and weaving—remain very much alive. The warmth and genuine hospitality of the Lucani people make every celebration feel deeply personal.

Lucanian cuisine is robust, intensely flavoured, and rooted in peasant traditions elevated to an art form. Signature dishes include lucanica sausage (the ancestor of all Italian sausages, praised by the Romans), cruschi peppers (sun-dried and fried to a sweet crunch), handmade pasta shapes like strascinati and cavatelli, lamb slow-roasted with wild herbs from the Pollino mountains, and Matera's famous pane di Matera IGP—a sourdough bread baked in wood-fired ovens. Paired with Aglianico del Vulture (one of southern Italy's finest red wines, grown on the volcanic slopes of Monte Vulture), your wedding feast will be unforgettable.