The calanchi around Aliano are one of the strangest landscapes in southern Italy: a terrain of pale grey clay eroded into deep ravines, knife-edge ridges, and isolated pinnacles that shifts colour through the day — silver in early morning, white at noon, almost ochre in the late afternoon light. Levi described them as lunar, and the comparison is apt.
The best views are from the edge of the village itself, where the land falls away sharply to reveal the full extent of the eroded clay formations. Paths lead down into the calanchi but conditions are variable — the clay turns slippery in wet weather and can be treacherous. In dry summer conditions, an early morning walk through the formations before the heat builds is atmospheric and strange. The landscape is at its most dramatic in the low light of the golden hour.