In hindsight, the fact that Matera is to be European Capital for Culture in 2019 would have been motivation enough for visiting Basilicata, but that was not my first objective. In fact, it wasn’t even on the list of priorities. These were, in descending order, to visit my old friend Martine Greslon and her cookery school, to make a pilgrimage to the volcanic vineyards of Mount Vulture, to spend a night at Francis Ford Coppola’s boutique hotel where Sofia Coppola was married, and to bask on golden sands by an azure Ionian Sea.