Some general data
Puglia, Calabria and Basilicata are three regions of Italy, which has twenty in total. Each has a capital and is divided into provinces:
Puglia
has acapital of Bari and six provinces: Foggia, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Bari, Brindisi, Taranto and Lecce
.Calabria
has five provinces: Cosenza, Crotone, Catanzaro (also the capital of the region), Vibo Valentia and Reggio di Calabria.Basilicata
is divided into two provinces: Potenza and Matera. The city of Potenza is also the capital of the region. Puglia remains the largest region with 19,541 km2. Calabria is in second place with 15 079 km2. Basilicata covers 9 992 km2. The three regions share a common border with Campania, and Puglia is also bordered to the north by the Molise region.Puglia: miles of coastline and olive trees as far as the eye can see
Puglia is the easternmost region of the country, the least mountainous and the one with the longest coastline in continental Italy with 865 km of coastline. It is indeed bathed in the west by the Ionian Sea and in the east by the Adriatic Sea. The cape of Punta Palascia, near Otranto, is the most eastern point of the country: 80 km separate it from Albania. More than half of Puglia's territory is flat and Monte Cornacchia, the "roof of Puglia", which rises to 1,152 m, is located in the 1.5% of the region's mountainous area.
The landscape of Puglia is therefore essentially made up of plains and low hills, with an important Mediterranean coastline. Nevertheless, between the Gargano in the north and the Salento in the south, there are differences and the landscape is far from being homogeneous. First of all, Puglia is divided into several geographical sub-regions: Gargano and Daunia in the north, separated by the Tavoliere; Murge and Valle d'Itria in the centre; Salento in the south. The Gargano promontory is also called the "Spur of Italy" and corresponds to the sort of spur that juts out into the Adriatic Sea. It is a limestone mountain range with a peak of 1,056 m at Monte Calvo and includes the Parco nazionale del Gargano. The Daunia Mountains, at the north-western end of Puglia, are a mountain range belonging to the Apennines. The Tavoliere, the "granary" of the region, is a vast plain covered with wheat fields and pastures around the town of Foggia. With its 4,810 km2, the Tavoliere is the largest plain in Italy after the Po. The centre of the region is formed by a vast limestone plateau called Murge, dotted with ravines, dolines, caves and grottoes, the result of the underground action of the waters. The Murge are very extensive, covering also part of Basilicata and representing the largest karst plateau in Italy. The Parco nazionale dell'Alta Murgia is located here. The Valle d'Itria is a transitional area between the Murge and the Salento. This territory of gentle hills is internationally known for its numerous trulli. Finally, the tip of the heel is occupied by the Salento, whose relief is lower and the land more fertile than in the Murge
.Several islands belong to the territory of Puglia: the archipelago of the Tremiti islands, in the Adriatic, north of the Gargano promontory; the Cheradi islands off Taranto; the island of Sant'Andrea opposite Gallipoli.
This geographical panorama of Puglia would be incomplete without a glimpse of its coastline with its varied landscapes, where rocky coasts, creeks, sandy beaches and cliffs alternate. If the coasts of Gargano present a rugged relief, one will find along the Ionian Sea and in the Gulf of Taranto vast sandy stretches bordered by pinewoods.Calabria: between sea and mountains
The geography of Calabria is very different: while Puglia is characterized by a fairly uniform relief, Calabria stands out for its tormented landscapes, where one can go very quickly from the sea to the mountains, from the Mediterranean coast to the thorny peaks with an almost Alpine decor. Half of the region is made up of hills, about 40% of mountains and 9% of plains. It is crossed by theApennino Calabro, the southern end of the Apennine mountain range, the backbone of the Italian peninsula. Between two marine horizons, Tyrrhenian to the west and Ionian to the east, the region has six discontinuous massifs, of which the Sila high plateau is the pivot and the Aspromonte the last southern surge. To the north, the Pollino massif, which the region shares with Basilicata, has the highest peaks in the territory, including Mount Pollino, at 2,248 m. No place in Calabria is more than 50 km from the sea; the region, with its elongated profile, has 780 km of coastline with a variety of landscapes and a few islets and reefs off the coast. Along the Tyrrhenian Sea, the last foothills of the Apennines plunge in places directly into the deep blue sea. Sheer cliffs with caves alternate with long sandy and pebble beaches. The relief gives way to a few plains, the most extensive of which is that of Gioia Tauro. From the Tyrrhenian coast, you can also see the silhouettes of the Aeolian Islands (which belong administratively to Sicily), and in particular the cone formed by the volcano Stromboli. The Ionian coast, punctuated by a few promontories, offers miles of fine sandy beaches, especially between Soverato and the mouth of the Stilaro. To the south-west, Calabria is separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina, whose narrowest width is 3.2 km between Cape Peloro, on the territory of Messina, and Punta Pezzo, north of Reggio di Calabria.
Basilicata: from the Lucanian Dolomites to the Matera Gorge
Of the three regions, Basilicata remains the most territorial, surrounded by Campania and Calabria to the west and Puglia to the north and east. It has only two modest seafronts, towards the Ionian Sea to the south-east and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. The relief of Basilicata is divided between mountains (47%) and hills (45%), with plains occupying the remaining 8%. The mountainous territory is formed by theApennino lucano which crosses the region from north to south. Basilicate offers a great diversity of landscapes and six geographical sub-regions can be distinguished. In the north, the Vulture-Melfese takes its name from Mount Vulture, an extinct volcano, and the town of Melfi; it is an area of high and medium altitude covered with large forests. To the south-east of Potenza, the Dolomiti lucane have sharp rocky peaks. To the south-west, the Pollino massif stretches along the border with Calabria; here we find the Serra Dolcedorme which, at 2,267 metres, is the highest point in Basilicata. The Val d'Agri, in the centre-west, is an area of high plateau that follows the course of the river Agri. The Collina materana or Murge of Matera, in the centre-east, is a more arid region with a rugged terrain. It forms one of the most characteristic landscapes of Basilicata, a desolate and lonely territory that time and the weather have shaped into coves, dunes, clay cones and canyons, reminiscent at times of Cappadocia. Finally, the Metapontino or Metapontine plain, the only extensive plain in the region, stretches along the Ionian coast.
Rivers, streams and lakes
Puglia is still poor in lakes and rivers. It has two main rivers: the Ofanto and the Fortore. The course of the Ofanto draws a part of the border between Puglia and Basilicata. It rises in Campania and flows into the Adriatic in the province of Andria-Barletta-Trani. The Fortore follows the border with Molise and its mouth in the Adriatic is located north of the Gargano promontory. The region also has a few coastal lakes, separated from the sea by a strip of sand: they are found mainly in Gargano (lakes of Lesina, Varano, Salso) and north of Otranto (lakes Alimini). The saltworks of Margherita di Savoia, south of the Gargano, form a protected natural area. With a surface area of 3,871 ha, it is the largest saltworks in Europe. Finally, Puglia has a single mountain lake: Lake Pescara in the Daunia Mountains.
The case of Basilicate is a little different. The main rivers of the region, which flow between the Apennines and the Ionian plain, are the Bradano, the Basento, the Cavone, the Agri and the Sinni. They all flow into the Ionian Sea after long and tormented courses. There are also a large number of torrents and volcanic lakes, such as those of Monticchio, as well as artificial basins built to receive the water from the rivers and used for irrigation and the production of electricity. The most important basins are those of the Bradano, the Agri and the Pertusillo.
Calabria is not really a land of wetlands, in spite of its many mountain torrents with short courses. Its two main rivers are the Crati and the Neto. The Crati rises on the Sila plateau, crosses Cosenza where it receives the waters of the Busento, and flows into the Ionian Sea. The Neto also rises in the Sila and flows through the provinces of Cosenza and Crotone before reaching the Ionian Sea. However, most of the rivers in Calabria have a torrential regime. Their beds, dry most of the time, suddenly fill up during stormy rains and the water then runs down the steep slopes of the mountain ranges. Finally, the main Calabrian lakes are artificial and are located on the Sila plateau: the most important are the Ampollino, the Arvo, the Cecita, the Angitola and the Passante.A territory in a seismic zone
Seismic movements are a natural calamity in the three regions, as in much of Italy. This is due to the fact that the country is located at the meeting point of two tectonic plates, the Eurasian plate and the African plate. The latter exerts strong pressure on the former, along a fault that crosses the Strait of Messina and follows the Apennine chain. Seismic activity - and volcanic activity - is therefore important in Italy and, in the south, it concerns mainly Calabria and Basilicata, while Puglia remains more spared by the phenomenon. The last destructive earthquake took place in 1980 and hit the province of Potenza in Basilicata and a large part of Campania. It was one of the most intense and devastating earthquakes to hit Italy in the 20th century, destroying about 300 towns and villages and killing more than 3,000 people. But the biggest earthquake ever recorded in Europe took place in 1908 and devastated the cities of Messina, in Sicily, and Reggio, in Calabria. More than 100,000 people died at the two disaster sites. More than a century earlier, in 1783, another earthquake struck Calabria killing nearly 50,000 people, while in 1857, Basilicata was hit by an earthquake that killed thousands and caused considerable material damage
