Maratea Geography & Climate

Maratea occupies a narrow strip where the Lucanian Apennines meet the Tyrrhenian Sea, and there is very little flat ground anywhere in it.

Thirty kilometres of coast

Basilicata is almost entirely inland. Its short Tyrrhenian frontage, squeezed between Campania to the north and Calabria to the south, is roughly thirty kilometres long and belongs almost wholly to this one commune. That accident of administrative geography is why a landlocked region has a seaside town at all.

Mountain into sea

The land falls steeply from around 600 metres to the water in a few kilometres. Monte San Biagio rises directly behind the borgo, and the coast below is cliff broken by small coves and shingle beaches rather than any continuous shore. The SS18 runs along it as a corniche, high above the water.

Limestone and caves

The rock is limestone, and it is riddled with caves both above and below sea level — the show cave near the marina is one of many, and divers use several of the submerged ones.

Santo Janni

A low rocky islet lies offshore, used as an anchorage in Roman times. The seabed around it holds scattered amphorae and the remains of cargo, and it is a protected underwater archaeological area.

Behind the mountain

Inland the ground rises quickly into the Pollino massif, the largest national park in Italy, straddling the Basilicata-Calabria border and reaching over two thousand metres. Maratea therefore sits between high mountains and open sea within about twenty kilometres, and in a good spring you can be among snow patches in the morning and in the water in the afternoon. The slopes between are wooded and thinly populated, and the old routes inland were mule tracks rather than roads well into the twentieth century.

Maratea has a mild Tyrrhenian climate, and the contrast with the rest of Basilicata is sharp.

Summer

July and August are warm rather than fierce, with highs usually between 28 and 31°C. The sea and the mountain together keep the extremes down, and there is almost always air moving off the water. Compared with Matera, 150 kilometres inland, summer here is several degrees cooler and much more humid.

Winter

Winters are mild and wet. January highs sit around 13°C and frost is rare at sea level, though the mountain behind can be white while the coast is green. This stretch of coast is one of the warmer places to spend a southern Italian winter.

Rain

Noticeably wetter than the rest of the region — the mountains catch weather coming off the Tyrrhenian, and autumn and winter bring real rain, sometimes heavy. That is why the slopes are as green as they are.

The sea

Swimmable from June into October, clear and deep close inshore because the land drops away so steeply.

Spring

April and May are the best-kept part of the year here: the slopes are green and flowering, the air is warm before the water is, and the town is empty. The Pollino behind may still be holding snow.

Wind

The gulf is fairly sheltered, but the libeccio from the south-west can build a real swell against a coast with almost no harbours of refuge, and boat trips are cancelled accordingly.

When it works

May, June, September and early October are the best of it: warm water, warm air and a town that has room in it.