With the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Italy, a type of guerrilla warfare was unleashed against the House of Savoy, better known as 'post-unification brigandage'.. The disregarded allocation of state-owned lands due to the heavy debt of the House of Savoy and the increase in taxes and cost of essential goods were the main causes of the revolt, which many historians believe to be one of the first civil wars in contemporary Italy.

The main territory that gave asylum to the brigands, partly because of its orographic conformation, was the Vulture-Melfi area.

The bands of brigands were mostly formed by people from humble backgrounds, former soldiers of the Army of the Two Sicilies and former Garibaldians, among whom there were also common bandits. Among the leaders of these groups, the best known was the Lucanian Carmine 'Donatelli' Crocco, from Rionero in Vulture. Crocco managed to gather around two thousand men under his command, carrying out raids in Basilicata, Campania, Molise and Apulia, flanked by lieutenants such as Ninco Nanco and Giuseppe Caruso.

Thanks to his extensive knowledge of the area, General Crocco was able to easily evade the forces of order, taking refuge mainly in natural caves, some of which are still known to the local farmers.

Some of these caves can be accessed in the vicinity of the Abbey of San Michele, which lies on the shores of the Monticchio Lakes. After walking for a few hundred metres over an area of impervious terrain and with some difficulty, overcoming a difference in height of approximately 100 metres, we come to an extraordinary and very evocative landscape where, only half a century ago, the golden eagle nested.