Deep-rooted cultural and religious rituals are resplendent in Gravina in Puglia, an ancient town sitting timelessly beside one of the many karst ravines scoring the landscape on Puglia’s border with Basilicata. Alta Murgia national park, a protected plateau, is nearby.  In the rural yet art-filled town, the beauty is in the details “starting from the altars rich in marble inlays,” says local historian Giuseppe Schinco. 

The villagers live slowly and deeply entwined in their belief systems that create a very old atmosphere, even today. “The Gravinese is a ‘panziette cundènd,’ a happy belly, says Schinco in the local cadenced dialect.  “Our land is so fertile that we harvest abundance without working much. The Gravinesi are lazy yet so capable once they leave their town.”