Albergo Italia Matera

... with floor, hotel furnishings, and modern amenities. The bathtub was a Jacuzzi cut right into the cave wall. It was quite bizarre but a fun experience staying in a cave. <br><br>We spent our time wandering the maze of old streets and alleys of the Sassi area. Indeed, the words mysterious and haunting are perfect. We can&#8217;t imagine any other place being like this and John was fascinated by it. It truly looks like a town lost in time and a place where you might expect ...

... in a humid cave which so recently housed entire families, and gazing across the ravine to opposite cliffs where shepherds sheltered for millennia, we got a sense of how hard life was here for so many. Stepping through the courtyards, ancient wine cellars and narrow streets, however, you do also get a strong sense of the communities which survived and flourished against the odds. <br><br>Tiny ...

This is where Pietro, an old Italian guy, jumped into Bruce and navigated us to the trulli. He saved us from a traffic jam in the narrow streets of Puglia.<br><br>Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)<br><br>Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" &#8211; meaning &#8220;dome&#8221;. See the pictures of the wee houses.<br><br>We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus &#8211; meaning &#8220;beautiful view&#8221;. It was beautiful.

... to go and are doing u-turns randomly before having to wait, not knowing what for. The pedestrians are told to wait and then pointed in a direction that doesn't appear safe for pedestrians and lastly for the cyclists, chrissy and I, none of the employees actually know whether we are supposed to wait in a really long vehicle line, or follow the pedestrians into that building. However, they all confidently tell us contradicting things ...

... much so that heaps of films have been made there, King David with Richard Gere and Mel Gibson´s The Passion of the Christ amongst them. <br><br>We arrived late afternoon and looked down on the valley of houses from the main square, and in the distance saw a campervan on the edge of a cliff the other side of the valley, a km or so away. Now wouldn´t that be a cool spot to spend the night, wake up with a cup of ...

... day I also rang my grandfather in Australia because I wanted to speak with him in Italian. I thought I knew enough to hold a conversation with him. He was very glad to hear from me - and we spoke pretty much all in Italian which is amazing and something I've always wanted to be able to do. So I look forward to learning more so I can coonverse with him even better, and read about the histroy of Sicily which my grandfather has written in Italian.

... hostel was situated right in the middle of this old section of the town, so that I was able to dine, work and nap surrounded by this tranquil, yet lively village. I am continuing towards Bari tomorrow and then to Greece. I am excited to head back out on the road in an unfamiliar territory but in the same time I am already feeling a little sad to leave. All in all, I have had a wonderful time here in Italy; I am sure I will be back sooner than later.

... where the two pharmacists, once again, proved to be extremely kind and helpful. Armed with a dictionary and query Italian, I tried to remember the words for "rash" and "crouch". In the end I settled for a few jesters and finger pointings. "where? where? - oh, down there.. OK..", the pharmacist finally said, heading towards the baby ointments section. The whole process took 5 long minutes; the line behind me grew, yet the ...

Short ride yet breathtaking. Via Appia is magnificent! An ancient roman road which is situated comfortably on the mountains above the highway is also amerced in natural forest and meadows, dotted here and there by small town houses, grazing sheep, pigs or hens. There is barely any traffic on the road - definite a bikers heaven. The mountain peaks reach a hight of more than 1000 m.

... As the dwellings go further down, they become rock houses (basically caves) and churches carved into the hillside. These rock dwellings are extremely old and can only be paralleled by Cappadocia in Turkey and Petra in Jordan. We later found out that Passion of the Christ was filmed in Matera which attracts many tourists - though not us!!! Unfortunately, as it was so hilly, we could ...