Matera 2 - 14 October 2022

Poor Tintin spent his time inside and outside of Dave last night in the rain - it was either our alarm system indicating that there was a problem with the lockers, or the pipe on the sog unit kept coming off.

There was quite a lot of road noise, not a problem for Tintin to sleep, and I eventually drifted off - quite nice listening to the rain on the roof…

This morning the alarm wouldn’t set properly, we re-closed all the doors and lockers, Tintin lay under Dave to find the bicycle loop (which we’ve never used) - all ok. There was a tiny bit of wetness on the sensor on one locker - and drying that has cleared the problem - result!

We’ve only cycled just over 5 miles today - but it was all very uphill to start the day! Also walked for 15,500 steps. And, it rumbled with thunder, and had a few spots of rain on the cycle home - but brilliant - didn’t get wet 🙂

We’ve spent the day exploring Matera (population 59,000).  Some of the caves were inhabited 7,000 - 9,000 years ago (depends which book I read!)

Some of the Bond film - No Time To Die with Daniel Craig was filmed in Matera.

In the smallish area there are 20 churches, 8 rock churches, 20 museums and historical places, 8 piazzas and 7 palaces! You’ll be pleased to read that I’m not mentioning many - you’ll get the idea of what it was like from the many photos we took - again!

Peasant families used to live here up until the early 1950s. Carved out of the tufa, the cave-houses were mostly made up of one room, with a wide opening at the entrance. They served as a shelter for families, along with their animals to keep them warm.

Poverty and disease caused a ‘national scandal’ - and these people were forcibly relocated to new homes. Since the 1970s, the Sassi have been restored and are now a tourist attraction, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.

There are two main districts - the Sasso Caveoso on the south side - more historic, and the Sasso Barisano on the north side which is more commercial.

The Salvatore Dali weird clock thing is outside the 13th century Chiara di San Francesco d’Assisi, which was incredibly ornate inside - almost like a Portuguese church!

The commercial side all looked clean, with lots of shops, restaurants and people. We were led by our noses to a bread/cake shop. We queued for a while and bought two fruit filled rock cake like things! It does annoy me a bit that there aren’t any prices on goods for sale. I still think if you’re a tourist you pay more! €7 for the two! One shared between us filled a hole in our tummies until lunchtime - but nothing that special.

A picture of Tintin under Dali’s Space Elephant. Plus, the little table with legs and feet amused me!

We just generally wandered around, in a few churches which were free.

Paid €2 to get into the Cathedral - as you can see - very ornate!

By about 13.30 decided to eat. It was freezing cold in the shade and wind! Tintin had pasta with mushrooms and sausages, and I tried pasta with their specialty of crusci peppers (dried red bell peppers) - which were supposed to be really crunchy, but just chewy really! €31.

The entrance to see a cave was €5 each, thought that was a bit excessive - so decided to do the long walk, right down the cliff, over the hanging foot bridge and up to look at caves at the top of the other side.

The map shows the wriggly route and the distance, doesn’t sound far, but lots of people puffing and panting!

Stunning views from the top! Took a longer, but more gentle path back up. We heard some rumbles of thunder, and thought it was about time to ride home.

What a lovely long descent, just about made up for the climb this morning! Just a few spots of rain before we arrived back at Dave - just in time for a cuppa and the other rock cake!

We’re trying a rum from Venezuela bought for only €11 at the supermarket - no complaints!