Arriving to Accettura from the Basentana Route, there is a huge forest that one can observe not only from outside but also from inside and throughout, thanks to the road that moves into the trees, in interiors made of deep light and twilight.

Every time you reach the sunlight coming out from the green, the natural experience is different. Different spaces and places, different scents, images and sounds and silences. Different, when you walk, the combinations between water and wind through the leaves. Different if you are in Montepiano Wood or in Gallipoli Cognato Forest: when you moves in this trees metropolis, time and space dilate.

Before entering the town, we meet ancient villages and settlement: the fortification of Tempa del Monte and Serra Antica, ruins of castles and medieval palaces in Tempa Castello. Along the road to Stigliano we meet Val Miletta and Serra del Garbo, the smallest villages of Basilicata. Here we can record small pieces of history.

At Francesca’s Fountain (in Montepiano Wood), while drinking fresh spring water, it is possible to meet a farmer that reveal us that in that place there has been the historical battle between the Brigands and the National Guard on August the 7^th 1862. At Tratturo Fountain another shepherd can explain us that that path is used for transhumance and the water of the Fountain served once the town.

From there, following the paths it is possible to reach Oliveto Lucano and down to Salandra. However, the most interesting experience to understand the values of this Wood town is the rite of the “Maggio” that makes Accettura famous.

Two forest, two part of the town, two symbolic trees to marry, two road, one meeting place. Moving from the woods, it is possible to revive this rite based on ancient tree cult. The male, the highest and perfect oak (the Maggio) comes from Montepiano Wood, the bride, the female, called “Cima” is a monumental holly from the Forest of Gallipoli Cognato.

Two parades moving on opposite road bring the trees in town the Pentecost day for the wedding ceremony that takes place in an open space next to the town hall, whose walls have been painted by Costantin Udrov.