Saturday 2 November 2024

Lady P is up at dawn to take photos of the sunrise; go for a walk into town; and buy cornetti from the local baker. She’s a good camper. We are heading to Matera today.

Matera is about 45 minutes away and is another old, white, tourist town, a bit like Alberobello. It is now a tourist attraction and World Heritage site. It is believed that the area has been continuously inhabited since 10,000 BC, making it potentially the oldest in the world.

The main attraction is the old caves that the people lived in. Carved out of the soft limestone cliffs and housing the family and all their animals, they were unsanitary, peasant dwellings, right up to 1952, when the embarrassed government forcibly relocated them to new housing nearby.

It's now November and like Alberobello, there are people everywhere, including tour busses and the little bloke with the flag on the stick. Strangely, all the tourists are Italian. How do we know this? Flashy has a keen eye for the foreigner and an ear tuned to languages. Ten years as ‘Eyes and ears of the North’ eh! Well, it’s true.  Not an American, Australian, French, German accent anywhere. No Asian faces. Plenty of black tracky dacks, leopard print tights and D&C sunnies and lots of hand gestures and loud Italian spoken, though.

We did the little bus tour with 18 people. All Italian apart from us and the commentary in Italian then English.

While busy, it was bearable and we congratulated ourselves on doing the touristy things in the off-season. I can’t imagine how terrible it would be in the height of summer. Wait! Yes I can. We were at Mont Saint-Michel with thousands of tourists a few months ago and it was disgusting.

As the day drifted into dusk, we drove a short distance outside of the city to the top of the cliffs and looked back west to the city streets. Apparently, this is the done thing to watch the sunset and the city lights come on. Some in the party were quite moved by the spectacle.

Home at 6.00 pm and to stay awake until 8.30 pm, when we have a booking at La Bottega del Gusto, 20 metres from our door. Luckily we booked, as the 40 seater already had ten diners. Dinner was conducted in Flashy’s broken Italian. No English and no menu either. So, we looked at what was offered to other tables and it was many small antipasti dished all served at the same time, covering every inch of the table top.

So stunned were we, that we forgot to take many food photos. From memory, we had 13 dishes, including: bruschetta, mozzarella, ricotta, focaccia, fish fillet, pork stew, a selection of cured ham, olives and a crème pâtissiere filled bignet. The vino rosso, of unknown heritage, came in a large ceramic jug. The dessert was accompanied by two cruets filled with limoncello and a dark walnut liqueur. Both home made. Total cost - €45.

The restaurant and adjoining deli are run by two brothers, who we met and they are friendly, smiley blokes, clearly pleased to have a couple of foreigners in the place.

Much research has gone into the selection of our stops in southern Italy, including waking in the wee hours to log in and make bookings. Flashy says it pays to travel with an expert. As a result, we have stayed in places like Ceglie Messapica and Irsini, where we are clearly the only tourists. Of course, this is a slight exaggeration but you certainly don’t see or hear much other than Italian. It’s been a fantastic experience, largely in rural Puglia, in the old towns and far superior to staying in cities. But it takes a lot of effort. Well done Lady P. 

Streets of Matera from Flashy's bar seat.
Cave house
The sun sets in the west.
La Bottega de Gusto antipasti
Those cruets of delicious liqueurs.

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