In the mountain area known as the Upper Calore Valley, the village of Nusco (listed among 'I Borghi più belli d'Italia', the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy) sits on the ridge of a mountain at 914 metres, arranged almost like a fishbone. From its Lombard castle there are 360-degree views over a densely wooded landscape, the watershed between the sources of the Ofanto and the Calore. The historic centre takes up much of the village, which rests on the mountain, with two viewpoints: one over the Upper Ofanto Valley, the other over the Upper Calore Valley. The historic centre, a compact block of buildings, is well worth a visit for its remarkable religious heritage: the Co-Cathedral of Santo Stefano and Sant'Amato, with its crypt and Angevin frescoes of the Nativity, the old Diocesan Seminary with the multimedia museum, and the churches of San Giuseppe, Santa Maria Vetere and the Trinità, with Angevin frescoes.

Descending towards Cassano Irpino, at the foot of the village you come to the Pollentina spring, which feeds the Apulian Aqueduct. In Cassano's historic centre, visit the mother church of San Bartolomeo, the town's patron saint.

Still on the plain, a few kilometres further on, you reach the municipality of Montella and the Convent of San Francesco a Folloni, a national monument rich in works of art. According to legend, the convent was founded by St Francis of Assisi himself in January 1222, as he passed through the Folloni woods on his way to the sanctuary of San Michele on the Gargano.

From the convent, at 600 metres above sea level, head east for about 4 km to reach the historic centre of Bagnoli Irpino, set amid the greenery of the Monti Picentini Regional Park and rich in history and art. If Montella means chestnuts, Bagnoli means black truffles. The castle and the mother church are unmissable, the latter for its 17th-century woodcarving by local craftsmen. Leaving the village along the provincial road to Lake Laceno, the road climbs to 1,200 metres through woods and striking mountain clefts such as the Caliendo cave. When it begins to descend, you find yourself on the plateau known as Lake Laceno. Here, beside the small church of Santa Nesta and the so-called Grotto of St William, is a modern ski lift, now being brought back into service, from the top of which you can see the Gulf of Salerno.