Days 30, 31 and 32 - Matera, Italy.
After docking at Bari, I get a taxi to Bari train station and get ripped off by the taxi driver; I should know to always ask the fare up front - lesson learnt as a 10 minute drive cost 20 euros which should have been more like 10 euros max. Firstly he tried to talk me into agreeing to 150 euro taxi ride all the way to Matera, pretending that the train journey would take 4 hours - like heck, luckily I had already researched this and knew what the score was; just under 2 hours at a cost of 7 euros.
Got to Matera, B&B was a short walk from the station (thank goodness for google maps) and was greeted by a typical Italian mumma who didn’t speak very much english - this was going to be awkward (once again thank goodness for google translate). Room and ensuite lovely and close to the reason for being here - Sassi, the cave town.
After a quick shower and change, did my usual reccy walk to get a feel for the area and walked to Sassi which is only about 5 minutes down the hill. If ever you venture to this part of Italy this town is not be missed, it’s amazingly beautiful and has so much history.
I’m not going to go deep into the history as will load a link, but historians are unsure how old this town is; it started with cave dwellers and has progressed from there. People and animals shared the same living space, no running water or sanitation to speak of right up until recent times. In 1950 it was called the ‘shame of italy’ and the govt moved all the people out of the cave houses and got architects to build a new town around it. Typically the architects seemed to have had their own agenda as the town of Matera mostly looks like a sprawling communist influenced town. Then in the 1960’s they realised that the now getting derelict cave houses could be of use so they made people up-date them and laid on services and people began moving back, so much so that they are now changing hands at exorbitant prices and is quite the address to have. In 1993 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site and has applied to be the 2019 European City of Culture.
My reason for doing this blog as 3 in 1 is that the stories will be the same so I’ll just post the pictures for you to see and this link for the history.
There’s a church on virtually every corner. One had a very strange exhibition going on.
Some of the cave churches were initially built for the early Rupestrian religion and still have some beautiful frescos remaining, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos in most of the cave churches.
Inside a cave house as it would have been in the 1950/60’s.
Matera is famous for it’s own particular type of bread; it’s like sourdough but slightly softer. Each family had their own bread stamp which would be passed down through the male line and treasured by the females. The shape is supposed to look like Sassi.
Got to Matera, B&B was a short walk from the station (thank goodness for google maps) and was greeted by a typical Italian mumma who didn’t speak very much english - this was going to be awkward (once again thank goodness for google translate). Room and ensuite lovely and close to the reason for being here - Sassi, the cave town.
After a quick shower and change, did my usual reccy walk to get a feel for the area and walked to Sassi which is only about 5 minutes down the hill. If ever you venture to this part of Italy this town is not be missed, it’s amazingly beautiful and has so much history.
I’m not going to go deep into the history as will load a link, but historians are unsure how old this town is; it started with cave dwellers and has progressed from there. People and animals shared the same living space, no running water or sanitation to speak of right up until recent times. In 1950 it was called the ‘shame of italy’ and the govt moved all the people out of the cave houses and got architects to build a new town around it. Typically the architects seemed to have had their own agenda as the town of Matera mostly looks like a sprawling communist influenced town. Then in the 1960’s they realised that the now getting derelict cave houses could be of use so they made people up-date them and laid on services and people began moving back, so much so that they are now changing hands at exorbitant prices and is quite the address to have. In 1993 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site and has applied to be the 2019 European City of Culture.
My reason for doing this blog as 3 in 1 is that the stories will be the same so I’ll just post the pictures for you to see and this link for the history.
There’s a church on virtually every corner. One had a very strange exhibition going on.
Some of the cave churches were initially built for the early Rupestrian religion and still have some beautiful frescos remaining, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos in most of the cave churches.
Inside a cave house as it would have been in the 1950/60’s.
Matera is famous for it’s own particular type of bread; it’s like sourdough but slightly softer. Each family had their own bread stamp which would be passed down through the male line and treasured by the females. The shape is supposed to look like Sassi.
There are museums and galleries exhibiting historical treasures.
There was a thunderstorm today and I just like this cloud formation, it looks so sinister.
Great piccies again Sue.
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