Every country has its forgotten corners, the regions ignored by visitors, the backwaters often blighted by poverty, history and geographical bad luck. Even Italy, among the most blessed of destinations, has such outposts, places that until recently were often seen only by the more well-informed travellers.

Few of these overlooked destinations deserve their obscurity, and certainly not in Italy where some of the least visited regions by foreigners make up the most southerly parts of the famous cartographic boot – Puglia, the heel and spur; Basilicata, the instep; and Calabria, the toe. A fourth, Campania, is barely known beyond Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.