Month: August 2015

Here I am at the end of my stay in Matera. Once again it seemed like such a long stay and once again its hard to believe where it has gone. I’m glad I was here for 10 days.People rush in and rush out but more time gives you the opportunity to get into the rhythm of life and to see beyond the tourist trail. I like that. But back to where I left off which was Sunday. As always I went out to dinner but it was unremarkable, in fact a little less that that. I ordered mixed fish grill and expected at least some fish but all I got was octopus/ squid…tough at that!! Wont go back there.

Monday. I made another attempt to find someone to take me outside the city to see some sites in the ‘hinterland’. But to no avail. If you are alone they really don’t want to deal with you because they have to try and hook you up with someone else’s tour…they are all tailor made tours for families or small groups. I don’t fit so I gave up on that. I then walked up to the castle on the (little) hill. It is rather neglected and not open but there were no tourists around so I sat in the shade under the pine trees and read my book. There was a lovely breeze so it was very nice. Walking back I looked at small backpacks which may have solved my luggage problem for the flight but they were too expensive. I always fret when I have to get on a plane…will my luggage weigh too much (probably), will I have too much hand luggage (probably) etc etc.

I came back to get out of the sun for a while then went out wandering again. For dinner I went back to a place I’d been before, that was OK.

Yesterday I was on a mission to find these whistle things that Chris asked me to look for and get her one. I searched Matera with people sending me this way and that. Didn’t finish the mission, had to do that today. I then went to the archeological museum which was interesting. When I came back home the thunder and lightning started up and the rain came down. It was lovely to be inside watching the black clouds rumble over the Sassi. Quite an amazing sight. Then I went out again, this time to a new restaurant I’d had my eye on in the new town. I think it is the best one so far but again jam packed. I got there early so got a table for myself but soon everyone was being turned away, or being told to come back later. For some weird reason I feel guilty when I have a table to myself…and I feel as if I have to have a primi and a secondi or I won’t be worth it (weird I know)!! Anyway the food was absolutely delicious, they were so nice to me. Far from rushing me they gave me an aperitivo to finish up (god knows what it was).

Today, my last day. I set off after coffee down to the depths of the Sassi looking for Chris’ whistle. Again people are so helpful. I finally found out that the man who made them has closed up shop. His cave was owned by the government and he had to leave it. But I found the daughter of the man who learnt his trade from the original man. He makes different ones but at least I’ve got something. Apparently no-one has seen the original man for some time so maybe he died. Anyway the daughter was delightful and she also makes some beautiful stuff….more to carry I’m afraid!! While I was in the Sassi the thunder was rolling all around me quite dramatically with accompanying bolts of lightning. It was so sensational. Then while I was in the shop the heavens opened and the rain just poured down. Fortunately I’d got out of my thongs and I took refuge in the shop for ages before I ventured out and climbed up out of the Sassi. I didn’t get too wet. I came home and now I must try a trial pack to see if I need to go and buy a backpack…I’m hoping to get away with it!!

Tomorrow morning I get a bus from here to Bari Airport, then a flight to Trieste where Chris is to meet me at the airport. Hopefully all will go well and tomorrow night I’ll be sitting on a terrace overlooking the beach. No WiFi I’m told so I’ll be reliant on finding a cafe somewhere which probably won’t be easy. I do have the 3G in my iPad which has Skype….hopefully that will work.

I hate Sundays. No favourite coffee bar open, nothing much open before 11am. Nonetheless out I go and I do find a place for coffee.
Then I set out for the Modern Museum of Sculpture which means a hike down the steep streets that make up this town. Its actually not too bad. The steps are donkey/horse steps i.e. they are shallow and widely spaced so that the donkeys and/or horses were able to walk up and down the streets. I’m a donkey step fan, they suit me!! The only problem is the blazing sun beating down on my head (with my hat still sitting on the hat rack in Roma…and I’m too mean to buy another of course). Everything is steep in Matera and there are these little 3 wheeled kind of superior tuk tuks that many tourists get in to be ferried around. I watch them putter past me in envy. Although they can’t get up and down the steps…albeit donkey steps!!

The Museum was once again (for me) more about the setting than anything else. It is in a C16 palazzo with a series of caves underneath the palace. These caves were used for storage of wheat and wine etc (and to hide in in some circumstances) and are now used, most ingeniously, to house sculptures. It was really fantastic. Then you go up to the palace itself which is also full of these sculptures in the magnificent setting of the palace with frescoed walls etc. Quite amazing really. Then I went to another cave house that now gives a virtual ‘tour’ of the history of Matera. It is excellent but unfortunately all in Italian.

Some more wandering around, some more sweat and then time to come back to the apartment and hibernate for a few hours. Now I’ll go out and join the rest of Matera in the Piazza for a bit of people watching before dinner.

Last night I went back to the restaurant I liked so much a few nights ago Il Cantuccio. They treat me very well there and I was able to enjoy that sensational Ricotta with pear antipasto again. My lovely waiter recommends wine for me (just by the glass) and I enjoy tasting different ones. As I said before I am a total convert to the Bianco in this weather. However last night I had a follow-up glass of red. The Reds down here in the south are even more ‘forte’ than I like. They positively stick to your teeth they are so full bodied. I actually don’t enjoy it which will also be a surprise. I’m a convert to the Chianti. I think I’ll come home and want to be sipping fucking Pinot Noir.

After dinner the Piazza is just completely overflowing. I don’t think there is a single Materan who stays indoors in the evening. They are all in the Piazza chatting to their friends, kids running all over the place. The old and the young. It is the Italian way and something I just love about this country. Where is the Piazza in Caulfield????

I prepare now to exit and join the throng in the Piazza.

Each morning I go to what is now ‘my’ bar for my coffee and sometimes Cornetto. Its nice to be known in at least one place in town. I sit there for a while and read while I enjoy my coffee, before I set out for my morning sortee. Yesterday I went to the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art in Palazzo Lanfranchi. It was a great setting like all these Museums and the best thing about it were the amazing portraits by Carlo Levi done in the first half of the 20th Century. They were fantastic. He wrote ‘Christ Stopped at Eboli’ about his experience living in and around Matera. It was the most impoverished area of Italy then but also fiercely independent and the first town in Italy to rise up against the Fascists. Anyway I came away enthralled with his work and proceeded to buy the book…how devoted I have become to my Kindle!!!

Then I sat in Hemingway Caffe (yes where Ernest used to sit) and had some lunch and a glass of wine. I wandered some more but it was again so hot and sweaty that the motivation to do too much is lacking. So I came home for a while before exiting again for my evening passeggiata and my people watching in the Piazza which just fills with people every evening. Then finding a restaurant for my evening meal. Last night I went to a seafood restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside on a Terrace eating a most delicious Sea Bass. The only thing missing is company to share it with and the only thing I gained but didn’t need were the mosquitoes….but even they couldn’t impair my enjoyment of the delightful fish. This was followed by Ricotta and Pear Torte!!! Sheep’s ricotta is very big in these parts and totally delicious.

This morning I had to haul myself off to the supermarket for a few supplies (such as wine) and really that’s about all I’ve done except fight with the internet connection trying to speak to Rosa. I’m off out again soon but I can’t deny the laziness of the day.

From where I left off yesterday I did go off to the third cave church which had been looted in the 1970s – very sadly. Apparently many people left Matera in the 50s, 60s and 70s due to the terrible living conditions, some were forcibly relocated from their cave dwellings and over this time a lot of looting went on. Well it has certainly made a remarkable recovery and is gearing itself up to host the Cultural expo in 2019. Anyway this church was San Pietro Barisano, down in the Sassi and there are just lovely frescoes throughout although not always in great repair. The interesting thing is that underneath the church is where they used to store the bodies to ‘drain’ them, only removing them when decomposition was complete. So down I went wandering through these underground corridors covered in ’niches’ where the bodies were sat to drain. Most interesting!!

Up I went then and found myself a spot on the main Piazza Vittorio Veneto to sit and do some people watching with a glass of wine in hand. I then went to a most fantastic restaurant for dinner called Il Cantuccio. That was a real find thanks to LPG. A lovely waiter who had spent a year in Australia took me in hand and suggested an antipasta of Ricotta with fig and orange…it was the most delicious thing I’ve tasted for ages. He was adamant that we just don’t get Ricotto in Australia…not what he calls ricotto. Then a delicious pasta and a ricotta mousse for dessert. I was very happy. He also insisted I try this delicious wine that I’ll never be able to remember…a dry muscata. You will be surprised to learn I’m drinking mainly white wine in this heat.

This morning I went to some other amazing cave churches, one on top of the other. Madonna delle Virtu’ and San Nicola dei Greci with a labyrinth of caves and passages with cellars where they stored their wine. They were founded as monasteries for Nuns escaping Palestine in the 11th and 12th centuries and continuously used since. Surrounded by cave dwellings and full of frescoes left by the monks. It is all a bit incredible. After this bit of exploration I found myself climbing a mountain of steps to get up to the Duomo…and in the boiling sun. When I finally got there I stopped in a cafe for a fruit punch thingo, wandered through the town and came home for the afternoon hibernation.

Now I’m about to go out again to forage for food and probably sit and have a pre-dinner drink in a piazza somewhere. I’m spending a lot of money just so that I can sit and have drinks in between exertion.
Internet is still a pain but it comes and goes, I just have to wait for it to come!!

Firstly the internet lasted all of a few hours and has now gone again. So, I write this and if it gets to you you know it has popped back for a second or two. So frustrating but what can you do?

Yesterday afternoon when finally I’d had enough of sorting out internet problems I set out on a walk through the Sassi. This turned out to be quite a big walk through the lovely winding, step-filled streets of the town. The cave houses are all around, some derelict and closed up, others renovated shops and homes. I walked along the ravine to see all the ancient cave dwellings perched above the river along this massive gorge. I went into some cave churches, filled with frescoes in varying states of repair. As I walked I was struck by how much it reminded me of Cappadocia in Turkey with its cave churches and dwellings and the frescoes that are so similar. This is, I think, even more enchanting. It does look like a giant film location and indeed it has been. Mel Gibson is a bit of a legend here after filming The Passion…I don’t think they’ve caught onto what an arsehole he is.

Finally, in a pool of sweat I climbed out of the Sassi into the lovely Piazza on the high ground. I staggered to a very trendy bar, plopped into a seat right on the Piazza and ordered a Spritz…what else is a girl to do I ask myself!!!! It was getting late given the change of routine to exiting the apartment early am and late afternoon…it was already heading for 8pm. So I found a very modest restaurant, had a modest pasta, copious wine and a limoncello, then headed home to bed. Cold shower and going to bed wet is the only way to go.

This morning I had a coffee (haven’t found the perfect bar yet). Yesterday when I went to one of the cave churches I bought a ticket for three churches thereby saving myself money. So this morning I returned to the Sassi to go to the second one which perches high on a rock and entails a bit of a hike up. But again these ancient frescoes inside a church carved into the rock…very lovely and evocative. I also went to see the elaborate system of underground water collection that kept Matera going. It is quite extraordinary. You climb down into these massive caverns that once stored the towns water. One well that the town used to pull their water from. There were open sewers down the main street then and when the cisterns flooded it cleaned out the sewer. The conditions the people of Matera used to live in are mind blowing really.

By then it was pool of sweat time again so up I climbed, found another bar for an orange juice and a coffee, tried to phone you guys with varying success as you know. Then came home for the afternoon hibernation. Soon I will go out again. I will get a gelato somewhere and will visit the third church on my ticket before it runs out.

This is an amazing, fascinating city and I’m back into full tourist mode. Not too many tourists around, it’s too hot!! I am taking it easy given I have 10 days to explore the smallish town and because that’s all you can do in this heat.

Thought I’d keep writing my missives despite my internet problems. They can sit in the outbox until such time as I can connect. In the meantime I have spent the morning finding a WIND outlet and have now reactivated my 3G sim on ipad so emails are getting through on the ipad and I feel a bit better. In the meantime have been on to landlady again to fix the problem.

now, where was I up to:
Roma…a lovely relaxed, hot and very sweaty time! In the evening on Saturday we walked down to the island on the tevere for a meal by the river. It was really a lovely time. We found a great Spanish restaurant right beside the river, had a seafood paella, some wine and a crema catalana (shared). We wandered around, watched some open air cinema from the bridge…a dubbed version of Youth with Michael Caine. Then we wandered home in the slightly cooler night air, both had a cold shower before bed.

The next morning we went off for our morning coffee, always a little hard to find on a Sunday morning, particularly now when the Romans are exiting for their August holidays. Anyway after coffe we got on a bus and went to the Porta Portese sunday market where you can buy just about anything at all. Chris persuaded me of the virtues of buying a suitcase of the intermediate size for my next couple of months of tripping around. It was only 25 Eu and provided it doesn’t fall apart I think it is a good idea. We got home at lunch time …guess what hot, sweaty and tired!! A cold glass or two of wine seems to remedy most washed out sensations. Chris made a most delicious lunch of fresh sardine she crumbed and baked…delicious!!! We then stayed home in the afternoon in front of the fans, had spaghetti at home for tea and went to bed due to my need for an early rise on Monday morning to take myself off to Matera.

I was out of the apartment at 7am Monday morning and on the bus to the station. On the train to Bari for 4 hrs or so…a jam pack aroobied train with me sitting nest to a woman and her dog that she talked to all the way. Every time she put the dog in its bag (these are special dog carry bags) and put it on the floor someone tripped over it which elicited a volley of abuse from the lady towards the unsuspecting person who had nearly tripped over. I tried diligently to ignore the damn dog but was looking more and more heartless as the journey went on.

Anyway I got to Bari, found the other train station where the regional trains left for Matera, got my ticket and all went well. Paola the landlady met me at the station (came specially up from the beach house to meet me and then got into all sorts of drama when I said I had to have internet access). I won’t go into all the carry on with the internet that ensued. Suffice to say I went out for a meal last night to a restaurant nearby which was so full it overflowed and the single little old lady sitting by herself had to struggle to get any attention.

Matera itself is a truly amazing town, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. To start with the South is a totally different world, a dry, flat world of olive trees and some vines. So different to the rolling, green hills of Tuscany. And then this town of ravines, cave dwellings and steep steep streets is quite remarkable, awe inspiring and breathtaking. I think I’m really going to enjoy exploring it slowly while trying to avoid being a mad dog or an Englishman in the midday sun.

Into the outbox with this post. While I’ve been typing it I’ve had multiple phone calls as they try to fix the problem.