176 Route 15. POTENZA. From Naples
Railway journey from Naples to Vietri, see p. 145. Thence
to Pastena by omnibus. From the road a charming view of the
Bay of Salerno is enjoyed to the r. Then the villages of Pastena
Salerno, Pontecagnano and Battipaglia (p. 149), whence two high
roads diverge, one to Calabria (R. 17), the other to Paestum
(p. 149) on the coast.
Eboli (the best Loeanda is situated on the high road, about
200 paces outside the town; in the town, Albergo del Sorrentino),
a small town on the slope of the mountain, with ancient chateau,
property of the Principe of Angri, commands a beautiful prospect
of the sea, the oak-forest of Persano, the towns at the base of
M. Alburno, the temples of Paestum and the valley of the Sele
(Silarus).
The high road from Eboli to Potenza (56 M.) coincides with
the Calabrian route as far as (23 M.) Auletta. It crosses the broad
and impetuous Sele 4]/o M. from Eboli, ascends through a some¬
what bleak district (magnificent retrospects of the plain of Paestum
and Salerno), turns to the r. near Postiglione, and leads to La
Duchessa and Lo Scorzo, the common halting-place of the vettu¬
rini, with a tolerable inn, 14 M. from Eboli. The mountain
Alburnus, visible the whole way, according to Virgil '-green with
holm-oaks", interposes itself between the sea and the plain which
extends from Lo Scorzo to Auletta. The small town lies on an
eminence clothed with vines and forest, near the river Negro,
Lat. Tanager, which is crossed by the road. Here the effects of
the fearful earthquake of 1857 begin to be recognized in the di¬
lapidated church, and fallen houses, a catastrophe which entirely
annihilated a number of towns and villages in the Basilicata and
occasioned a loss of upwards of 32,000 lives. In the district of
Sala alone and in the valley of the Diano 13,230 persons perished,
and 27.150 more died from exposure, starvation and cold. As
late as March 1858. 120,000 individuals were still without shelter.
(Every evening, on the arrival of the Corriere, a dilig. runs to
Potenza in 9 hrs.: fare 9 L).
The road to Potenza diverges to the 1. near Auletta, crosses
the Landro , a tributary of the Sele, and traverses an extremely
picturesque district as far as Vietri di Potenza (believed to be
the Campi Veteres, where B. C. 242 the proconsul Tiberius Sem-
pronius Gracchus, according to Livy, 25, 16, fell a victim to his
premature confidence in the Lucanian Flavus): then across the
river Marno; to the 1. the beautifully situated Picerno, almost
entirely destroyed by the earthquake. The road now gradually
ascends to the ridge of Monte Foi and thence descends to
Potenza (Posta), with 15,450 inhab., an episcopal residence
and capital of the province Basilicata, which nearly corresponds
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