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.