Love Is All Around (Matera)

I shall commence this post, dear reader, by mentioning some of the more 'stupid tourist' behaviour we have witnessed. An example occurred this afternoon when we were sitting on our balcony, enjoying the afternoon Matera sun and a local rosé, drinking responsibly of course. I looked down and saw an older lady (no judgement) being walked down the piazza by a very large, muscled, much younger man. As a judgement formed in my mind, he bid her farewell and turned back towards the osteria from which they had both come. She thanked him loudly enough for me to identify her nationality (no, dear reader, apply your own prejudice) and she staggered off down the narrow street, almost bouncing from one building to another. Seriously. We thought she would fall. It is important to be a good representative of your country when you travel.

Continuing that theme, two men walked out of a church behind us. One commented, "I thought you'd gone in to pray." His friend replied, "I didn't know it was a church." Presumably they had just followed the crowd, and neither knew what they were going to see. I have an idea, let's travel half way across this flat earth and end up in place we know nothing about and blindly follow the crowd.

Also, in places not Matera, we watched an elderly man attempt to open a clearly locked and bolted castle door. Why? Well, some people want to see what they don't want to pay for. That is a recurring theme and spans international boundaries. In another example, a man begged the attendant to let him to the church without paying just to take a few photographs. Happily the answer was no. And on another guided tour of a building, one guy pushed the button on every lamp he passed to see if it would light up. FFS.

The church shares the piazza with Café Ghavè.

Breakfast this morning, and probably the mornings following, was at the Café Ghavè, just up a few stairs in the nearest piazza. The coffee was very good and the pastry of choice, croissant, so named, really cornetto, was excellent. Probably the best I've had since we've been travelling. The best thing is the tour groups don't come this far up Via Baggio in the mornings so we literally had the place to ourselves.

We had the morning at leisure because our Get Your Guide walk had been postponed from 10:00am till 1:15pm. It seems that pricey, individual tours can't compete with mass groups. Sigh. Anyway we decided to do what we often do and just walk for a while. Jayne opted for the Cathedral, a quintessential sight on the Matera skyline.

Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi.

Ignoring the fascist architecture of some of the government buildings, we arrived, en route to the Duomo, at the church of San Francesco d'Assisi. Like many Catholic churches, it commands a dominating spot over the surrounding community. 

A Roggi sculpture.

There is a fascinating sculpture in this piazza, and several others that are scattered around the top of the gorge, by artist Andrea Roggi. Basically they incorporate human figures, an olive tree (the tree of life) and the world to show that everything is intertwined and one grows from the other. It is a pity that the billionaires who run the media, social media and tech companies don't understand the concept as the planet continues to warm and the impacts of climate change become more dire.

The Roggi at the Cathedral.

The Cathedral (Il Duomo) has a museum to walk through before entering the church itself. There were the usual items on display, religious art works, recovered frescoes, expensive chalices and a very weird sculpture of Jesus on the cross. It is a depiction I have never seen previously. 

Please explain.

We then entered the cathedral proper, past a massive nativity scene. Larger than life. It needed dusting.

Big, but dusty.

The cathedral is richly adorned in gold, again with multiple side altars and a false ceiling that have been added on in different eras since it was originally constructed in the 13th century.  And more gold.

A side altar with lots of marble.

The ceiling looking towards the back of the Cathedral.

A section of the ceiling.

The main altar.

Back at the apartment, we attended to more domestic duties (yes, Andy, more washing) before we ventured out to meet Silvio, our guide for the afternoon walking tour. 

The Cathedral has a rather unassuming façade.

He arrived late, admitting to having just come from a coffee with colleagues. Anyway, we told him we had already visited the Duomo and presumably he then adjusted our tour, starting off with a visit to a Sassi church that lies under the Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Here he began to tell the story of the Sassi (the stones) and how people literally carved out a life in Matera over centuries. The Sassi are in fact in two halves, the Sassi Barisano (the rich part) and the Sassi Caveoso (the poor part).

Il Duomo from a distance.

The caves are not natural but have been excavated to provide limestone blocks to construct buildings in the richer part of town while also creating caves in the poorer part. The caves stored various things as well as people and their livestock. Initially the Cathedral was constructed along with battlement walls and then residences/palazzi were built within the fortifications until they had to expand. Utilising existing terraced levels of the hillsides that form the river ravine, they built outwards and excavated more caves lower down for the underclass. The palazzi for the ruling class were built on high and the limestone panorama of the Sassi was created. A typical hierarchy, the rich on top of the poor.

There is very little space not utilised.

On the tour, we saw various vantage points to understand the nature of the overall development from top to bottom but we also entered preserved caves to see what the living conditions were like. Families with maybe 6 or more children lived in carved out rooms, along with their livestock, with no sanitation and little ventilation or lighting. Sounds inviting doesn't it?

Where the animals slept.

The bedroom adjoining the animal's space.

The 'master' bedroom was only a few steps away from where the animals slept. Do cattle snore? In the next chamber was the 'manure room'. That does not bear thinking about.

The manure room.

The town developed a system of water cisterns to store precious water but the capacity to ensure its quality was limited and mortality rates were shockingly high.

Water into the cave dwelling.

An external cistern (well).

It took until the 1950's for the government to take notice of the Sassi. It was declared the "shame of Italy". Subsequently the inhabitants were moved out into government housing in the modern Matera and provided with social and economic assistance to re-establish their lives. The government then acquired the precinct and started to restore its districts. 

Restoration has stalled here.

A UNESCO world heritage listing was bestowed in the 1990's. A true rags to riches story. Today, only about 2,000 people actually live in the Sassi - the rest of the restored accommodation, leased from the government, provides temporary stay apartments and hotels (some ridiculously expensive) for tourists, like us.

The Church of St Mary of Idris.

As a part of our walking tour, we also entered the Rupestrian Church Santa Lucia alla Malve. There are too many churches to count in Matera, both Rupestrian and more main stream. There are over 150 of the rock hewn churches alone. Many are still able to be seen and it is amazing that the ancient frescoes still survive in one form or another. Some have been destroyed, others preserved, some painted over with newer frescoes.

The oldest fresco in Matera.

The church we visited was at one point a convent, then a private house and is now a museum. Its roof, not ceiling, is the site of an older cemetery where the graves were carved into the rock.

Former grave sites.

We also happened upon another cat protection area. I do not understand this. Perhaps it's my Australian upbringing where cats are responsible for the destruction and devastation of so much local wildlife. Anyway, we found a cat, just chilling in an olive tree. Not something you see every day. Even our guide was captivated, taking photos and video.

It doesn't look comfortable to me.

Another church, yes, I know, was the Chiesa del Purgatoria. Great name. It had more skulls on the door than a pirate convention. Interestingly, the façade is shaped like a Bishop's hat. Now what does that say about power? This church was where you paid to have the religious pray to get your deceased loved ones out of purgatory more quickly

The Bishop's hat façade.

Such a welcoming door.

We also visited the Church of Saint Chiara which also contained another weirdly graphic interpretation of the Christ on the cross. Another battered version of the body and unusually, the nails were in the wrists and not the hands. I'm aware of an American TV program that suggested Christ could not have nailed through the hands because the bones were not strong enough to support the weight of the body. However, their headline grabbing show did not account for the fact that legend says his feet were affixed as well, taking the weight of the body above. I wonder when this stature was sculpted. We couldn't find any information about it.

After the tour, it was aperitivo hour so we wended our way back to our sunny balcony to watch the vista and get ready for our dinner tonight - about 30 steps away from our front door.

Dinner was, hmmm, not worth the money, is the expression I was looking for. It is a well known restaurant. Jayne delighted in the number of stairs she had to descend to reach our table. It is cave country. Every waiter, no women, was wired for sound and the food came out quickly. Everything seemed to be such a rush, it was difficult to feel relaxed. This is not what the south of Italy is about, but Matera is an area for tourists - well the old town is. Tonight though, we were surrounded by people speaking Italian. Regardless, I felt the cave dining experience was more important than the food or the feel of the place.

The famed Matera bread baked by Dr Frankenstein.

Looking forward to hitting the produce markets tomorrow morning and acquiring supplies to enjoy happy meals (not that sort) at our accommodation.

Today's title you ask? You can't see my obscure segue, dear reader? The Troggs, a 60s English band, were originally called the Troglodytes. It is a Latin word that means cave dweller and was used to describe colonies in France. The Italians adopted the term 'sassi' which means stones. Both colonies began in the same way, mining stone for the rich people to build their castles. 

Anyway, who needs an excuse to enjoy a classic song from the 60s? Not a remake for a Hollywood movie. Enjoy Love Is All Around.

Alla prossima.

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.