Hotel Sassi Matera

... in the movie, &#8220;The Passion of the Christ.&#8221; A couple of the old cave houses have been outfitted and furnished to look as they did in the 1950s and are open to visitors. <br><br>There are several hotels that have opened in the Sassi and they have made a novelty of the cave houses by turning them into hotel rooms. We stayed in room #3 for two nights at one such hotel called Locanda di San Martino. Our room was truly a comfortable cave that had been decked ...

Where to start! Martera and the Sassi are absolutley beautiful - definitley a must see when visiting Basilicata.<br><br>Matera,the second largest town in Basilicata is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, thanks to its extraordinary labyrinth of caves, used as dwellings as recently as the 1950s, and which are literally part of the town &#8211; under your feet, beside you, and around the next corner. Many ...

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.

... sleeping bags out on the deck outside. The weather was amazing and we slept in peace and privacy.<br><br>The disorganization continued of course. <br>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.<br><br>If we were in france we'd show up to ...

... may<br>have forgotten some bits!)<br><br>Matera has got to be one of the most fascinating places in the whole of Italy (we know, a big call). Over hundreds of years, dwellings have been cut into the rock - houses, churches, public buildings etc cut straight into steep valleys, and the result is just stunning. A well protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, the place looks just like it would have done centuries ago ...

... guide of the protected parks in Matera. He has just finished a degree in forestry and environmental science and knows all about the native flora. It was very interesting, but funny at first because the first place he showed me was full of gum trees and looked exactly like home! Anyway later on he pointed out all the native birds, the native plants and also the pests - like the gum trees. He makes a very good tour guide and it was a really ...

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 ...

... old face) - just a good pizza base with a little oil, salt and herbs, that is all wrinkled and splotchy, hence the name. The faccia vecchia disappears like a shot -we all prefer this to the other one with more topping. Elisa has brought a birthday cake for me - a sponge base doused in liqueurs, with vanilla and chocolate creme patisserie layers above and cream on top, and the birthday song is sung and they toast me with Spimante, and then I'm allowed to go out with my cousin ...