Hotel De Nicola Matera

... to come walking out of one of the dwellings.

We found a couple of very good restaurants (Nadi and il Cantuccio) and also explored the new town area which was surprisingly lively with numerous local families and residents walking on the streets at night in an almost carnival style atmosphere.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Matera because of its “other worldly” setting and feeling. It was a long drive to get there but very much worth the effort.

... are built into the rock face, often with just discernible faded frescoes painted onto the walls. There really is a biblical aspect to the landscape, and it comes as no surprise that the town was used as the setting for Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. ‘Simply Perfect’, he is reported to have said when first seeing Matera, and it isn’t hard to see why.

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.

Pete was also called Pietro while in Italy. :-)

Trullo comes from the Greek word, "tholos" – meaning “dome”. See the pictures of the wee houses.

We found the Belvedere pub here too - also the name of our local in Aus – meaning “beautiful view”. It was beautiful.

... sleeping bags out on the deck outside. The weather was amazing and we slept in peace and privacy.

The disorganization continued of course.
After realizing that we were dropped into the armpit of Italy and then attempting to cross a desert followed by mountains we decided to look into taking a train as we know we probably wouldn't make it to Rome in time with out train help anyway.

If we were in france we'd show up to ...

... and look over at the village from the other side of the canyon. So we took all sorts of little tracks until we found the right one in the dying light - and what an awesome sight it was in the morning, coffee in hand sitting on a rock at the edge of the canyon, watching the mist clear (check out the pics). For any movie buffs, we happened to be sitting on the spot in Melīs movie where Christ was crucified - so not ...

About 2 weeks ago I went away with Gianluca and Manuela to their hometown - Matera which is in the South of Italy. It took us 5 hours by train to get to Bari (an Italian Port), and then we met Phillipo one of Gianluca and Manuela's friends, who drove us the rest of the way to Matera. We arrived that night at about 11pm, then dropped our bags of at Manuela's mother's house and went out for for drinks. Over the course of the weekend I reckon I ...

I decided to remain in Matera for an extra day. The old city, boasting a heritage of nearly 10,000 years is clearly majestic in its effect on the first time visitor. Not too touristy (yet), the city gives out the real feeling of what living in a small, secluded, cliff hanging cave town would be like. One can easily imagine this by looking up towards the still vacant stone houses and caves or looking down at the creak and the rocky hills surrounding it ...

... hauled the bike up to the closest auto-washer and gave my bike a good rinse. We then returned to the shop were his son gave the bike a careful oiling (after I cleared the left-over smudges with some paper towel the shop-keeper provided me with). At the end of the process the owner wished me good luck and refused to take any money, "you can buy me a coffee tomorrow morning!" he said. The next encounter I had was in the local ...

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.

... get around with Ethan in the backpack and on our first day out, Jonathan blacked out a bit. We checked him out at the hospital but could only notch it up to severe exhaustion. Jonathan took it easy for the rest of our stay but I felt I should see a bit and with much difficulty, lugged Ethan and his cargo through three ancient rock churches and up and down the Sassi. As usual we visited ...