In this edition

• Capture of 'escape wizard' highlights criminal networks threading through Basilicata

  Spanish police have arrested an Albanian criminal known as the 'escape wizard' whose repeated escapes from prisons in Italy and Belgium exposed the porous criminal infrastructure that extends through southern Europe and into Basilicata's borders.

  Pietro Lasorsa · 386 words

• Basilicata faces peak heat as latest Italian heatwave crests

  The latest in a series of intense heatwaves is bearing down on Basilicata and southern Italy this weekend, with temperatures forecast to approach dangerous levels.

  Pietro Lasorsa · 78 words

Recent headlines from this bureau

• Capture of 'escape wizard' highlights criminal networks threading through Basilicata
• Basilicata faces peak heat as latest Italian heatwave crests
• Basilicata's summer of extremes meets Europe's air-con divide
• Fifth heatwave of summer bears down on Basilicata
• EU Windfall Tax Push Puts Basilicata's Oil in the Spotlight
• Basilicata's Summer of Extremes Mirrors Europe's Climate Reckoning
• Calabria's overlooked coast draws eyes to Basilicata's own shore
• Ten Years On, Amatrice Still Waits for Its Reconstruction

Geography & climate

Continental in the mountains, Mediterranean on the coasts.

Mountains and badlands between two seas; the Sassi of Matera, the Val d'Agri oilfields.

Economy & culture

Oil and gas (Italy's largest onshore field), agriculture, the Matera tourism boom, automotive.

Matera, once 'the shame of Italy', now a film set and capital of culture; a sparse, ancient South.