Tar and Cement (Lecce - Matera, via Taranto)

And so, dear reader, we arrived at yet another transit day. To date they have all been smooth sailing with none of the dramas that beset us last year. Except for Trenitalia occasionally reallocating our tickets without telling us. A minor challenge, until today.

Matera is not an easy place to get to from Lecce. Trenitalia lists options that include train and bus but these could take all day, literally. On the Catalonia tour last year, someone, let's call him Tim, talked of using FlixBus to get around and claimed it was seamless. That may be so but he wasn't dealing with Italian taxis. Let me explain.

Uber is virtually non-existent in Italy. The government, unlike in Australia, decided to protect the cartel of taxi ownership and keep Uber out. As a compromise, of sorts, there is an Italian Taxis app that you can download. In retrospect I wouldn't bother. It works in a similar way to most ride share apps. Alora, last night I ordered a taxi to take us to the bus terminal rather than drag our bags the 2 km distance from the apartment.

Our bus was scheduled for a 7:30am departure which, during the evening, became 7:40am. I ordered a taxi for 7:00am, which meant a 6am alarm. The App is excellent and allows you to nominate the number of bags you have, what type of car, the language the driver speaks; it is quite expansive. It also requests you wait at the designated place 10-15 minutes prior to your requested pick up time. Ah, the Italians have such a wonderful sense of humour.

Taxi booked, we drifted off to a restless night's sleep which saw us up and about before the alarm and waiting for the taxi at 6:45am. At that time the status was still something like "ride booked" but at 6:50am that became the taxi app equivalent of the spinning wheel of death with "finding you a taxi". Eventually that morphed into "having difficulty sourcing a ride" and finally "ride cancelled".

A random photo to break up the text.

I removed the parameters for the same result. At just after 7am we decided we had no choice but to walk the 2kms. Quickly. Much like the taxi, we were supposed to be waiting for our bus 15 minutes prior to departure. Another joke.

I don't really need to describe the bag drag, I'm sure you are familiar enough with that sort of experience. Suffice to say that I hate Google as it redirected us down a street that was closed for road works. We did however make the terminal with 10 minutes to spare as the sweat slowly ran down my neck and back. There were plenty of people waiting but not a FlixBus sign anywhere. My jangling nerves were not calmed.

Every time I went to the FlixBus App, it assured me I was at the right place. Then I thought I'd use the "track your journey" feature to see where our bus was. Big, paranoid mistake. It showed our bus was on time when clearly it wasn't and the icon for our bus was on the peripherique, quite a distance away. And I watched as it headed further away towards Brindisi. It appeared as though we had missed the bus. Yet, how was that possible? We were there 10 minutes before scheduled departure. While I was searching for some contact number to talk to a Flix representative, our bus drove into the piazza.

Sighs of relief all round. As everyone rushed to one side of the bus and queued to load their luggage, I walked to other side and stowed our bags, boarded and assumed our seats. Now we could relax - for the moment. Although we were 15 minutes late leaving Lecce.

At 9:00am I received a message from Italian Taxis telling me they were having trouble locating a ride for me. No shit. They'd have trouble locating me if they turned up because I was 10 minutes from Taranto and a full 2 hours after the requested time for pick up.

We arrived in Taranto on time. Disembarked, collected our bags and found a seat to wait for our connecting bus to Matera. It arrived 20 minutes early. Taranto was the beginning of the route, first stop Matera and then many stops to Rome airport.

The expanse of asphalt and concrete that is Taranto bus interchange.

I messaged our host as we left Taranto on time. Magically she replied that her husband would pick us up at the bus station. Now we could relax into the trip. Uccio was waiting for us in Matera with a hand made sign and in 10 minutes we had negotiated the traffic and entered the Sassi where we are spending the next 4 nights.

The view from the balcony.

The house is amazing although we need to negotiate many steps to get to it. It has two bedrooms, a lounge area, bathroom with washing machine and a balcony overlooking other parts of the Sassi. There was a bottle of prosecco in the fridge, snacks and cakes and tea bags ... everything you could require. And we were picked up so we didn't have to do a second 2km walk with the bags.

Looking the other direction from the balcony.

The afternoon was spent getting set up, making a dinner reservation at a restaurant all of 40 metres away, wandering the tourist strip and pausing for some authentic Materan food and a birra alla spina. The mattonella, ham and cheese in puff pastry is highly recommended and the panzerotto was good too. The most important action of the afternoon? Finding a short cut that circumvented some of those steep, narrow stairs.

The mattonella and panzerotto were good too.

The doorway some exasperating influencer posed today.

We enjoyed the prosecco on the balcony as the sun dipped behind the wall of houses opposite us, being serenaded all the while. I'm guessing at this point, but I believe there is a bar in one of the streets below us. We have heard the entire repertoire more than once and day one is not over. There were the usual standards to cater to a particular audience of age and nationality: My Way, Falling in Love with You, That's Amore, a couple of Beatles numbers and of course, Volare (oh-oh, sorry, I couldn't help it). He is currently doing another Lennon and McCartney number made popular by Mary Hopkins, Those were the Days.

Yet, none of those made the title for today. Tar and Cement particularly captured Jayne's attention. I'm sure she has it on a compilation from the '60s but she denies this. Anyway, we tracked it down, Tar and Cement by Verdelle Smith from 1966. Enjoy, or not. The stone walls ensure the sound carries everywhere. I hope they have an early night.

Moving on, it turned out that our serenader was not at bar down in the valley below, but was ensconced in a corner of the premier viewing platform of the Sassi. I discovered this because Jayne had regaled me with information about the best time to take photos, the blue time, that space just after sunset. Never one to miss a photo opportunity, I set out, just before sunset and that is how I discovered the viewing area and the minstrel.

Worth it?

It was too crowded for me so I grabbed a quick shot and moved on. It was also quite cold and I was still in shorts and a T. Back at the house, I suggested Jayne might wish to put on a thermal, not wishing a repeat of dinner a few nights ago, and not knowing if the restaurant had indoor seating.

I preferred my view.

Not to fear, the restaurant had a beautiful outdoor section and a major series of rooms dug into the side of the hill. Like, really, I should have picked that, this is the area of the cave dwellers. La Grotta Nei Sassi, recommended by our hosts, delivered a most delicious dinner. We tried some local dishes, cruschi peppers - dried capsicum, you eat them like chips. Also some Matera bread. Crusty and yum.

Nice and cosy inside.

Maybe one day we'll eat like an Italian and move beyond a starter and a 1st course, but not tonight. The food was excellent and the wine just as good. Although we did order a Primitivo which is an Apuglian wine, not a Basilicata wine. Noted. Won't happen again.

Then we popped around to the viewing area for a night shot of the Sassi.

The night view from 'the spot'.

Inside the shelter ... no idea.

A close up of the above. No comment.

That was a big day.

Alla prossima.

Hallelujah Chorus (Lecce)

It was back to the boulangerie for a more traditional Italian breakfast of strong coffee accompanied by something sweet. Today we both had the pasticciotto, dear reader. They look like over sized Madeleine cakes until you pick one up and bite into it. They are surprisingly heavy with their apple filling. We had a lost in translation moment when ordering the pasticciotto because we accidentally dropped the last syllable. That was soon sorted by yesterday's waitress who greeted us like old friends and translated for us. The coffee and food soon arrived to power us through the day.

Certainly that is one observation of difference between the north and the less travelled parts of the south - noticeably fewer locals speak English. Not a huge problem with technology available, nor do we just expect people to all speak English.  Certainly, our attempts at Italian generate a lot of laughs!

Dinner tonight will be at the apartment to ensure we eat what supplies we have left. Tomorrow is a transit day, by bus, a new and interesting experience. At the boulangerie, we purchased two rosetta rolls, one large, the other Jayne sized. Then it was over to the Coop to buy a couple of tomatoes. Silly us, we went to the check out to pay and the server had to take the tomatoes back, weigh them and create a sales sticker. Unusual system. More unusual, they wouldn't take cash for a purchase of €1,02.

We entered the old town via the same path as yesterday. The wind had dropped a little but it could still be chilly in the shade. There was not much left on our Lecce to do list. First stop was to the bancomato. The tourist tax in Sorrento needs to be paid in cash and although we could wait until Matera, we know where there are a couple of ATMs in Lecce.

Long story short, Bari did not charge a service fee for using an ATM. The first bank I tried here wanted €3,90 or $6.25, the next one wanted €5 or just over $8, as did the next one. It came down to the cheaper option or try the Credit Union on the way home and just accept whatever they charged. I went for the known and the cheapest option in the main piazza. What a total rip off.

The buildings are too big to capture.

The Baroque doorway to the Prefecture.

First stop today was the Prefecture next door to Santa Croce. It is a former convent and now houses local government offices. There is an ornate baroque doorway but inside the square is rather plain. Looking through to the other side, we could see a park with a small rotunda. It had a stylised green tiled roof, much like the Duomo.

The fountain had another beyond this one.

Duomos everywhere.

There wasn't much going on there. Kids in the playground, a couple of fountains and old people (older than us) sitting around enjoying the sunshine.

Back into the town, we went in search of the church of Santa Chiara. Again, the baroque style is really over the top. The stand out feature of this church is the ceiling. It looks like wooden panels but it is actually papier mâché. We spent more time there than required because there was a group of moronic tourists who insisted on standing in the centre of the aisle stopping anyone who wanted a clear photo of the altar. Normal people sat in a pew and read the notes from the associated QR code or listened quietly on their audio guides. Not these four. Entitled twats.

The papier mâché ceiling.

A side altar.

The main altar.

The next church was San Matteo, another baroque creation. At one stage, it fell out of use and the organ was removed and placed in another church. The space is still there but it has never been replaced. Once again, I'll let the pictures do the talking. However, the question arises, how many altars does one require? For a religion that does not tolerate worshipping idols they have a lot of altars dedicated to saints.

Side altar with part of a fresco.

The main deal.

I was keen to go to the top of the Bell Tower at the Duomo so we headed back there but decided to do the art museum and seminary first. Into the courtyard we walked to be met by Clotilde. She remembered us and gave us a big Italian welcome. We chatted while she waited for her tour group to reassemble.

Senza influencer.

There is a sculpture in the courtyard that is definitely worth a kodak moment. Again, patience was required because some uninspired influencer had set her iPhone up on a tripod and was taking numerous shots of herself. Checking them. re-shooting with different poses. FML these people are so self-absorbed. Apparently, prior to the shoot, she caused quite a queue in the ladies while she was making herself beautiful (on the outside at least).

Upstairs we went to the art museum. Of sorts. There was a Titian exhibition across town that would have been more interesting. The artworks were relics of their time period, dark, depicting predictable scenes from the bible.

I've seen better.

There was a mezzanine that held religious tools of trade, chalices, and lots of badly tarnished monstrances as well as highly embroidered vestments. Sorry, no photos, everything was encased in glass and there was too much reflection from the lights. The exhibition continued with papier mâché statues. My favourite was of Judith. Never heard of her? Grab a bible, it's a short read and she was a piece of work, but you'll need to read between the lines.

St Judith.

We also visited the Chapel of St Gregory. We're not sure how he fits into the picture in a former Franciscan seminary. Finally we looked at a temporary exhibition of contemporary sculpture and other artworks which contained some interesting pieces, still with a religious theme - except for one (see photo). Still scratching our heads about this one.

The Chapel of St Gregory.

Yeah, Manga Jesus? Not sure, but he is ripped.

As we were leaving to walk back out into the Piazza Duomo, we scored a stupid tourist comment. A woman, map in hand, asked the attendant where the Basilica Santa Croce was? "About a 5 minute walk." was the reply. Next question, "Where is the Duomo?" Like seriously! Out the door and look across the piazza. Maybe she thought the map was a fan to keep her cool in the warm Puglian sunshine... We often marvel at how people turn up somewhere and know absolutely nothing about the place they are visiting.

It was time to hit the top of the bell tower. Until I saw the price, €12, almost $20. Yeah nah. Instead we visited the cemetery just outside the town walls, next door to another university campus.

Outside Porto Napoli, nice link to the Duomo.

The gates to the cemetery were rather grand at both ends of the cypress avenue, but access to the cemetery itself was through a side road. There seemed to be a lot of cats about. There was a young uni student patting one and a few more turned up. As we walked down the side road, we came across a sign that declared the area a feline protection zone. It was sponsored by a local company. There was an extensive cat run with protection from the weather should they require it. There were cats under shrubs and the birds in the area seemed untroubled. At this point, still no graves or mausoleums.

A grand entrance to a cemetery.

I have no idea what this is about.

Then we came across a niche wall. larger than you would see at home. Beyond that, the newer versions of the family mausoleums. It looked like a scene form the Stepford Wives. Everything was very uniform. Jayne suggested the neighbourhood had a covenant regarding construction and lettering  on the façades.

Trying not to judge the money spent.

A little further on was a sandstone wall and beyond that were the old mausoleums. I thought some were churches they were so big. Clearly this was status symbol land. The bigger they were, the more important you or your family were. Despite the fact that we love a cemetery as a point of interest, it was kind of creepy so we returned to the land of the living and beer since we had already cracked 10,000 steps.

Not a street I want to live on.

The last task for us in Lecce was to find a Rustico. These are Lecce specialty pastries filled with bechamel sauce, mozzarella and a tomato sauce or passata. I was searching for a retailer because despite having walked past one shop several times, I had no idea where it was. Jayne went in to pay for the beer and returned with the news that this bar sold them. 

We ordered one to share. It sounds like a weird combination, but in essence they are the main ingredients of lasagna. The Lecce locals treat them like a snack food and eat them on the go. Since they are best eaten warm, Jayne had ours heated and we ate it at the table in the piazzetta.

If you get the opportunity, just do it.

To do list completed, we returned home to commence packing for an early start and tomorrow's trip to Matera.

And today's title? A little obvious, is it not? The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, a very well known piece of Baroque music. Enjoy.

Alla prossima.

Devil Gate Drive (Lecce)

Time to slow down a little, dear reader. It's all well to travel a country, but there comes a time when that journey needs to be more moderately paced. After all, that is why I booked a minimum 4 night stay everywhere except Rome and Florence, both places we have previously visited.

Today we were attempting to find a supermarket and a bakery and somewhere to have our daily coffee and pastry. Google suggested a piazza roughly between us and the old town. The rain had gone, but the wind had not and the forecast temperature was only 20° without the wind chill.

Piazza Mazzini, recommended by Google, has a massive fountain in the centre and was surrounded by banks, as far as we could see. Or designer stores. We ventured down one side street to find more of the same and no café or supermarket. Not to worry, we turned towards the old town and walked down the corso, lined with expensive stores and an anomalous McDonalds. The cancer is everywhere.

Big piazza, big fountain, big disappointment.

Back in the old town, we searched for a café that was a little protected from the wind and had tables in the sun. We found one in the south-east corner, aptly titled the South-East Café. The coffee was good but they had no croissants or brioche left. We would have to wait until later for sustenance.

I wanted to walk around the town just inside the walls but this proved to be impossible. There was not one road to circumnavigate old Lecce. Alora, I settled for walking to the three gates. The fourth was destroyed at some point and built over. Unusual.

Porta Napoli.

Unfortunately the first gate on our list, Porta Napoli, had us following a school excursion of 14 year olds. It appears 'boy behaviour' is the same the world over. Who'd be a high school teacher?

The gate is plain on the inside and decorated on the outside. Just beyond it, in the real world, is an obelisk.

The obelisk.

The next gate, Porta Rudiae, was not far away, down some reasonably quiet streets, in the university section of the old town. There were still cafés and restaurants and small shops, selling Lecce crafted materials, but the crowds and tour groups were missing. One had material hanging between the buildings and was decorated with fairy lights. It would be quite the picture at night.

A side street.

We also came a cross a doorway that had prickly pear, fico d'India, hanging from the metal frame. I'm uncertain why. It is the fruit that is eaten not the leaves.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Porta Rudiae was the entrance closest to the university of the arts and was different in style to Porta Napoli. The decorative façade faced out to greet visitors.

What happened here? On the wall of the University of the Arts.

Porta Rudiae.

Thoughts of a birra became stronger as the day wore on but I was mindful that we had not eaten. As we walked towards our third gate, we passed a trattoria that sold traditional Lecce dishes. Clotilde had recommended it yesterday. They also sold alla spina, draught beer. Bonus. Deciding which version of pucce to have was not easy until the owner recommended the 'pucce of the day' caramelised onion, zucchini flowers, mozzarella, speck and other things I can no longer recall. It was absolutely delicious.

The final door was Porta San Biagio and we meandered our way there, only following a mapped course as we neared the gate itself. You never know what you'll find wandering the lanes and streets of an old town. The Duomo often appeared above the other buildings acting as a focal point and guide, helping us to re-orient ourselves.

Porta San Biagio.

The final gate checked off, we walked to a nearby supermarket to buy the supplies we couldn't get earlier in the day. We walked in and walked out. Let's say that the proprietors weren't Italian and no-one from Lecce would be spruiking the quality of the produce on sale here.

Back home and back to Google. Our afternoon excursion proved to be more fruitful (see what I did there?). It directed us to another supermarket and bakery. Curiously, it was the one we were sent to in the morning in Piazza Mazzini, except this time the map brought us in the other end, straight past the boulangerie to the Coop. In our morning exploration we had opted to check out the other side of the piazza. 

Coop was the first stop. I have found a new favourite brand of chips, San Carlo 1936 or San Carlo Rustica. Either will do. They are excellent.

The Boulangerie has a cheese and charcuterie counter as well as pastries and breads. This is where we will come for breakfast. All we needed for tonight was some cheese to go with the left over pizza and wine we had already purchased. Happy days!

OK. So we hit all the gates. Isn't that enough to go all Suzi? Devil Gate Drive Come on, you know you want to.

Wednesday

Breakfast was at the Boulangerie. The people were so lovely and welcoming and we appeared to be the only ones who were not local. The doppio was excellent. I had a strudel which was delicious and Jayne had a pasticciotto, an apple and cinnamon filled traditional Lecce cake. I'll be trying that tomorrow.

Back into the old town, we went to the Castle of Charles V. Eventually. The access roads to it were being excavated with bull dozers this time, no trowels (yet), so we had a round-a-bout walk to get there. The next tour was 11:30am so we purchased tickets and burnt some time back in the main square.

The new statue of Sant'Oronzo.

The reviews on Google were quite mixed. A couple of patrons had a sook about the fact that the guide spoke only Italian and the non-Italian speakers were forced to use an audio guide. The other issue was that you could only access the interesting places on a tour. Obviously some areas were being protected.

The original statue, protected from the weather.

Today was the first day I walked out of the apartment with out my ear buds. If I'd had them, we could have listened to the guide who provided more in depth information. Without them it was audio guides and ear phones for us.

The tour itself was interesting and much of the castle is a work in progress where careful excavation continues. Like many of the buildings in Lecce, it is a celebration of many different eras, medieval, renaissance and baroque. Parts of it have been built over or around and it was altered to the tastes of whoever was ruling the day.

The original doorway has been altered for an upstairs addition.

A fresco in a side hall.

The dungeon was probably one of the more interesting stops. Complete with graffiti from its occupants, in fact one carved a letter about his unjust imprisonment. It reminded us of our tour of the castle in Cognac many years ago.

I'd put my coat of arms on the ceiling too. If I had one.

I'm innocent, exclaimed Victor.

Castle tour done, well not quite. The last stop was a papier mâché museum. Yes, you read that correctly. They take the art/craft very seriously here. Here are some photos. Without comment. Or smirks.

It was time to check out the inside of the Basilica Santa Croce and the Duomo with its crypt. No access without a ticket. €22 for the two of us to visit 5 churches and a museum. Happily, we do not have to do all of this in one day as the entry ticket remains valid for two weeks. We will split our visits over the remaining two days, because we can.

I am not sure how many more times a church can deliver the wow factor, dear reader. I have seen a few in my time, but today they both did. The numerous side altars with staggering Baroque decorative detail, the paintings, the papier mâché figurines, the carved ceilings with inlaid frescoes. The exterior façades prepare you for what you will see inside but the Basilica and the Cathedral are also quite different. 

The Cathedral has a lot more colour with stained glass windows and gold guilt edging on its side altars where Santa Croce is more monochrome, relying on the Lecce Baroque carving for its wow factor, with the exception of the centre piece behind the main altar.

Where they believe they have a relic of the cross of Jesus.

A side altar.

The main altar.

The ceiling.

The Duomo also has its crypt which features fairly unadorned walls and arches but has grills in the floor to see the excavations below including ossuaries, and multiple pairs of glasses that people have lost when they have obviously leaned over too far to have a good look. Rather weird looking down at skulls lying alongside name brand sunnies ...

Sorry, I missed the sunnies.

A side altar.

The main altar.

The Last Supper. On the ceiling.

I'd just like to point out that the Last Supper on the ceiling of the Duomo has people seated on both sides of the table. I'm sure it's much easier to get a booking that way. Imagine asking for a table that seats 13 all facing the artist?

The crypt.

The crypt had four arms.

Our touristing almost complete for today, we returned to the Duomo Piazza to go back to the wonderful store we had visited with Clotilde two nights ago. Here we purchased the delectable limoncello balls and some more Puglia wine and then, happily it was birra time at a sunny table in another piazza before heading home with our purchases. 

Curiously every time we were assailed by dodgy non-Italian hawkers, they spoke to us in French. I'm not sure if that is to represent what they see as the dominant language of visitors, or if we suddenly look Gallic. I mean, I have opted for a hat rather than a cap. 

Dinner tonight was at the restaurant that Clotilde recommended on our first night, Osteria Vecchia. Happily it was open tonight. Unhappily a very large tour group had booked out the inside restaurant. The less said about that the better. 

We could eat outside or find somewhere else. It wasn't that cold, except for the breeze, so we opted for an outside table. We sat and watched as more and more people were turned away. It was particularly gratifying when some marched to the door and expected to be seated and were not.

The food was excellent. And, yes, it was very cold outside due to the breeze.

Alla prossima.