We arrived to Matera by bus. It was a four hour comfortable ride. I tried to take
some pictures from the moving bus and got a few good shots using my Lumix. It has a setting
“shooting through glass” that really works well. The bus windows were dirty, but we
will see.We were dropped at the corner that we assumed was the Central Station.
It did not look like much. We started following the directions we received from our
host. I could not find a single street that we could recognize. After a few blocks we
saw a police station. We headed that way. It was closed.
We did what every person would do went you are totally lost in a foreign country.
We found a bar and ordered some whiskey. Not a word of English in the place.
The owner was very nice and really tried to help.
He finally said Taxi and I said “Si!”. Did I mention a taxi drove by when we got off the
bus and we said no. Did I also mention we were no where near the Central Station
where our directions started. We never got a taxi.
Another customer overheard our “plight” and offered a ride to the
Museo Archeologico Nazionale "Domenico Ridola".
Which was right next to the closed café were we were going to meet our host.
He did not speak a work of English. He loaded our bags and started driving.
He did not stop talking the entire 15 minute ride. This or course included a
couple of side trips the places we should go and see. We pulled up to the museum
and he helped unload the bags.
An offer of money was declined. He was just being nice.
See Rule #4 PEOPLE ARE AWESOME. 15 minutes later we were inside our room.
Matera is BEAUTIFUL. Many of the home are carved out of the stone walls. They are
caves actually. Many are built with the rocks and bricks of the same color.
The place is beautiful. The pathways and doorways are brand new to
nonexistent to totally decrepit. We have spent two full days walking all over
the Sassi area. The view from the rooftop where we are staying is as good as any place I have seen yet. I went out and took
some night shots for an hour last night and it was amazing.
Our feet are sore again after walking all over the cobblestone roads. We had some
rain and our rain suits and hats worked well.
I cannot express how it looks here. You need to see the pictures to truly get how it
looks. The entire town is marble looking - a white -tan color. The roads included.
One church tower stands out. You can see some new buildings just
above the older dwellings in a panoramic. People have lived here for 35,000 years.
We have internet.
If you come to Matera you need to stay in the Sassi. We have great views
from the roof. Silvia and Greg were great hosts.
The castle in town was not worth the walk. You could not go inside and it was
being renovated.
Again we had 3 nights here and two full days. It was not long enough. Three full
days is the new rule for us.
After talking some more last evening we have decided to go with four full days
anywhere we are stopping. The planning is a bit stressful. We are hitting Venice for 2 and a half days before going to
Trieste for a full week. Trieste was not even a stop at first, but we added it as we
were getting through locations faster than we had planned. We will go to Salzburg
Austria from there. We can catch up with the pictures and writings as we will
have a week and there is some rain expected.
Happy Travels,
Brad
Travelhaunt
My photo and blog site for my 2016 travels and beyond
Website: http://www.travelhaunt.com
Email: Brad@travelhaunt.com
P.S. If you go to the destination page and click the link to locations, I share additional pictures from each trip
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