Matera

To avoid the toll debacle that happened to us previously, we decided to get off the motorway about 2/3 into our journey and take the roads less travelled. There was good and bad about this. We found this obscure bakery in Ferrandina where we had the best pizza we have tasted (except for Ben Chisholm’s home made pizza’s) Crispy thin crust with a tomato sauce, so simple but so delicious. We then proceeded on our journey, Google Maps decided to take us on this country road that only farmers used, what an experience, washed out, steep, gravel road that took us a circle and after 45mins we were practically back in Ferrandina. Reset Dolly (Google Maps) and we were on our journey - we did achieve missing the toll gate 😆

Matera is a city on a rocky outcrop in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy. It includes the Sassi area, a complex of cave dwellings carved into the mountainside. Evacuated in 1952 due to poor living conditions, the Sassi now houses museums like the Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario, with period furniture and artisan tools. Nearby rock churches include St. Lucia alle Malve, with 13th-century frescoes.

I had woken up with a headache and feeling lethargic but this stop was somewhere I had really been looking forward to, so took some pills and carried on.
It took a 15min walk from our accommodation to get our first glimpse of the old town and it definitely didn’t disappoint, it was a Wow moment. We had decided to walk down the Porto steps to the swing bridge that crossed the ravine, the track was rough but we managed it. We could have gone up the mountain on the other side to go in the deserted caves but took the wise choice to head back up to the old town.
We started our exploration early which had the advantage of a near empty old town, by the time we had finished exploring the tour groups were starting and it was madness.
We visited Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario where a family lived up until 1952. These were natural caves serving as homes. The mules lived inside in a pen and the dung was put in a dug out pit in the house and this served as heating for the casa (house), the aroma can’t have been very pleasant!
They had rainwater funnelled into the house with a cistern dug out underneath, they had a well in the house for household use.
They also built snow cisterns. There was a layer of dry twigs tied together at the bottom so the ice would not stick to the bottom of the cave then they would layer the snow with straw & dry leaves in a specially dug cistern. The end product, ice, would be cut for use or sale. Two types, white ice and black ice. White ice could be used for consumption and black for other uses. I have a photo which explains the whole process which is a fascinating history lesson on how people used natural resources to survive.
There were many cafe/restaurants in the old town but none were open and this was 10:30 in the morning, we were dying for a coffee and finally found one that was open on the outskirts of the old town. By this time I was starting to feel unwell, had to sit down 3 times on the way home and sit on a fence. Proceeded to sleep 3 hours in the afternoon then the gastroenteritis started. That scuttled our idea of going back into the old town and having dinner.
The start of an unpleasant 3 days.Baca lagi