In 1963 a landslide forced Craco to leave: the village stayed on its spur among the badlands, intact and empty, becoming the South's most scenographic ruin. Cinema adopted it — Gibson's Passion, James Bond, dozens of productions — and today it is visited with helmet and guide along a secured route among gutted palaces and roofless churches.
The silence, broken by wind in the lanes, is what no photograph manages to carry away.
Our tip: book the guided visit from the Craco Peschiera visitor centre and choose late afternoon: low light on the badlands turns the ghost to gold. Closed shoes mandatory, vertigo inadvisable.
