Pollino

Gino heads back to the Basilicata region, this time on horseback, to explore Pollino, the largest national park in Italy.

This region is the hilliest in Italy and one of the remote regions where Albanian refugees came to settle 500 years ago, fleeing their Ottoman oppressors. The hill village of San Paolo Albanese is the smallest in the whole of Basilicata and has almost been frozen in time. Here, the descendants of these refugees live in splendid isolation, keeping their culture and language alive through dance and song in their native tongue Arbëreshë. Gino meets the centenarian ladies of the village who introduce him to the local dried sweet and delicate red peppers, the Crusco, which only grow in this region - sweeter still when covered in chocolate. He learns to make Albanian rod-shaped pasta and hunts for the wild herbs that grow in the park. To top off his adventure, Gino cooks his mother's favourite - pasta with chickpeas, adding a tasty wild pesto and the sweet cruschi peppers.