Cericarica to Matera - Via Appia II

Ah, I will miss Cericarica... As I entered the village I knew I wanted to stay. The village it self is situated on the cliff of a mountain densely populated with old stone houses. The town itself is small and tranquil. The people I met were kind, welcoming and keen on helping.

On the way to Matera

When I went to look for a degreasing material for my bike, the bike store honor offered to wash my bike (together with him). And so he did. We took his pickup, 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.

On the way to Matera

The next encounter I had was in the local pharmacy 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 people were very paciante and understanding.

The hotel I stayed in was a one star hotel. For 15 E I got a small, fifties style room with a little closet and a table. The hotel and Bar, below it, were run by a family - brother, sister and two parents (and one bossy mother!).

At the Sassi (stones) of Matera

The next day I continued towards Matera. I arrived in Matera at about 13:30, after having my tuna sandwich in the outskirts, surrounded by meadows, sheep and cows.

Sassi of Matera