Matera

Again, this post is now a few days old. Mostly my photographer's fault - if she wasn't so good she'd probably get the sack.

Yesterday we were up early and out to the airport to pick up the hire car. After the usual muck around that is car hire we ended up with a free upgrade which we were both thankful given the additional boot space.

From Napels we drove to Matera via Castelmezzano. Castelmezzano is a beautiful little down perched on a cliff edge overlooking a dramatic valley with a sister city perched on the opposite cliff. There's a zipline between the two but I wasn't game.

Then Matera. Beautiful, enticing Matera. Its old town - the Sassi - one of the oldest settlements in Italy, is built into a gorge with houses dug into the calcarenitic rock. These caves also contain a bunch of 13th century churches with frescos still somewhat intact providing a wonderful snapshot of the time. In the basement of one of these churches (Chiesa San Pietro Barisano) seats or alcoves were carved into the rock walls. This is where the dead were placed so they could be drained of their blood and left to decompose, only removing them when it was just their bones remaining. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

What's incredible is that up until the 1980s the Sassi had really high levels of poverty with people living in squalid conditions that were exposed by Carlo Levi (amoungst others) through his writing, painting and photography, some of which we saw in a gallery in town. I'm not sure what happened to the inhabitants after gentrification and tourism moved them along.

Of course it was a Saturday night when we arrived so up the Sassi we went to the new town above which was alive with music and drinking. Matera seems to pull a pretty sophisticated crowd. We found a nice wine bar where we enjoyed some local wine, beer and cheese. Then found a bar selling craft beer which we enjoyed outside with a jazz band. I ordered the stout and a guy standing at the bar told me I'd chosen the best and that he was the brewer. He'd said it with a bit of a cheeky grin so I said 'are you serious?', to which he replied 'I'm always serious. When I fuck, I don't smile.' It's nice getting to know the locals.

We finished the night off with dinner at a restaurant Mum had recommended. The meal was excellent and after another half a bottle of wine and a Grappa I asked the waiter if he remembered her which he did.

A cracker night all round and woke up with the sort of hangover I one should wake with when their football team has just one the flag for the third year in a row! Did you really think that was going to go unmentioned? Carn the Hawks!!!