THREE DAYS IN MATERA

MATERA:    Matera is the 3rd oldest city in the world, after Aleppo and Jerusulam.  The first humans in Italy settled along the sides of a huge canyon in what is now part of the city.   These pre-historic beings dug caves in the soft, porous rock and lived in these caves with their animals.   For approximately 9,000 years these caves have been continuously  occupied, although in modern times the city of Matera (pop. 60,000) developed adjacent to the sasso (cave area).

As Matera grew only the poorest people continued to live in the caves.  In 1952, following an outbreak of malaria the Italian government forced resettlement, although some people managed to stay in their cave/houses.  During the 1980's the municipal government of Matera allowed re-development of the sasso and hotels, bars, restaurants, etc. were built.

As we could not bring our vehicle into the sasso we left our SUV in a parking garage and attempted the 1/2 km walk to our hotel.  Despite having a map we got quite lost in the sasso, as there are no streets, and almost no signs; only rock stairs and paths.  We twice found people to give us directions but still we walked past our hotel three times without recognizing it.

Our room/cave is quite elegant, although Betty finds it a bit claustrophobic.  To get from our room to an area with restaurants, etc. involves either a very long walk or a steep climb over a small rock hill.  Part of the way there are some steep rock steps without railings.  At this point Betty can climb/crawl over the rock in just four minutes.

During our first afternoon while looking for a place for lunch we came across a beautiful Enoteca built at the bottom of an ancient cistern.  Here we tasted some great wines and also ate some unique food.  Eventually we were offered glasses of Titolo Elena Fucci.  While in Venosa we had tried twice to visit to visit the winery  but without success.  Perhaps this wine turned out to be the perfect Aglianico.  My credit card felt  warm when I left feeling quite sated and carrying a couple of precious bottles.

As we were not very hungry in the evening we couldn't decide whether or not to face the rock hill outside our room.  Eventually we did and ended up having some pasta and a bottle of cheap, but good Aglianico in a hole-in-the-wall with only four tables.

FOOD TIDBITS: We did a lot of walking our second day in the sasso.  Betty is managing better than I had expected but is very dependant on her cane and frequently my arm.  We had a magnificent lunch along the way but perhaps drank a little too much wine.

I have been wondering whether or not it is possible to get a bad meal in Italy.  Last evening Betty was feeling very tired and we decided to stay in rather than face more stairs and rock slopes.  I made my supper as best I could from the minibar in our room proving that it is possible to have a bad meal in Italy.

One of my many, many weaknesses is ice cream, and, of course the best comes from Italy.  However, it is only in Basilicata than one can get aglianico ice cream.

PARCO MURGIA:   On our last day in Matera we took a open-top bus tour to the huge park across the canyon from our cave/room.   The park contains over 100 "churches" which are actually caves that were dug by Christian monks who were refugees from persecution in Turkey in the middle ages.  Although all of the others on the bus were Italian our guide was very kind and explained everything to us in English.

At lunch we met for the first time some English-speaking tourists; one couple from Australian and a foursome from the U.S.   We were horrified to hear that these people had been drinking Primitivo and had never heard of Aglianico.