In the heart of Basilicata, in the province of Potenza, you can live an exciting experience: the Flight of the Angel!
In the Lucanian Dolomites we find the villages of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa: the first one appears as a small crib perched and protected by the high peaks that surround it. The distinctive element of the second village is its narrow streets and their dead ends, where the stone is an integral part of both the name and its conformation.
The Flight of the Angel gives the opportunity to fly just like an angel along two lines at almost 1.700 feet of height. The line of San Martino starts from Pietrapertosa at a height of almost 3.347 feet to arrive in Castelmezzano at an altitude of about 2.818 feet. The flight between one station and another has a length of almost 4.642 feet at a speed of 110 km/h. The Peschiera line starts from the 3.343 feet of Castelmezzano to arrive at about 2.913 feet in Pietrapertosa, at a speed of 120 km/h you will fly the almost 4.763 feet that separate the two towns.
The project was born from the stories of a French traveller on a summer evening. He told how the Andean children went to school on a pulley, slipping between the mountain slopes. Due to their proximity and their natural slope the villages of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa were the right place to reproduce this kind of experience, which allows people to live the territory in a sustainable way and to enjoy the beauties of the landscape in a completely innovative way.
It is the year 2000 when works on the construction of the lines began, and immediately became, with its more than 4.900 feet, the longest line in the world. The first solo flight was in 2007 and paired in 2013.
The Flight of the Angel is a 90-second experience that will seem endless to you, I can testify from personal experience. My flight, paired with my future husband it was a real leap in the dark, or better in the white (you can see it in the cover photo). Unfortunately, for organizational reasons, we managed to live this experience in October, on a gloomy day and, at that height, full of fog. I took off my glasses because I was afraid of losing them in the middle of the line. We found ourselves flying without knowing where we were headed! At some point we saw in that white wall the blue of the safety mattress… and finally we arrived safely at destination. The return flight was not so troubling, because in the meantime the fog was cleared, but still very exciting, so we could admire the natural beauties of the surrounding landscape and below us.
Definitely highly recommended and an experience to live at least once in a lifetime!!!
You can live this experience with us during the tour A Flight through the Sassi, Castles and Flavours. In the meantime, read the articles Aglianico del Vulture, Matera, the city of the Sassi and Lucanian Delicacy.
