13th - 19th October
Italy
We arrived in Italy on the 13th October, in the town of Bari. Unfortunately our Sat-nav had broken as we entered Croatia, but as we only had one road to follow and had the sea for reference at all times, even I was able to navigate successfully. However, the smug feeling of knowing where one was going soon disappeared after we disembarked from the ferry.
Bari is a veritable warren of small, bustling lanes without a useful directional signpost in sight. To make matters slightly worse for us the only maps of Italy we had included an overall A-Z map of Europe (pretty light on the detail), and some Google maps we had saved when we last used the internet. Nevertheless, we were able to navigate sufficiently to escape the chaos and arrive at the Castle Del Monte, near Andria. There we found a good rest stop with extremely friendly and helpful staff so we bedded down for the night.
Castel Del Monte
The Castle Del Monte is a very attractive castle, built for Emperor Frederick II around 1240 and the theme of eights is repeated throughout. There are eight turrets adjoining the eight walls and the rooms are geometrically divided in eight also. The effect is striking and the castle dominates the surrounding landscape.
Stone Huts
Matera
We managed to park very easily and in short order we were in the town centre having a cappucino. After that we took a stroll round the town and after looking in a few shops we turned a corner to be greeted with the most incredible sight of Matera's sprawling dwellings which literally spill down steep slopes into a central valley. It looked like something from Aladdin and the 40 Thieves and it took a while for us to take it in. As we took a stroll round Matera we were spoiled by the magnificent beauty of the place, even if its existence is testament to a darker side of its history. The dwellings of former residents which make the views of Matera simply stunning, were hewn out of the rocky slopes leading up to the richer residencies and churches on the top of the outcrop. Either side of the settlement the land falls away sharply to a canyon with a river running through it. The dwellings of the workers were dank, only used by poor worker families and were the equivalent of slums leading the government to introduce new legislation and high-rise flat to enable them to move people (forcibly if necessary) from these family homes during the 1950s.
It was while having a nosey that the heavens opened and while Rachel had a look around a museum to avoid the rain, I went into a photo shop as the proprietor was busy playing on a Fender Strat. He had a spare acoustic so we spent the next two hours jamming in his shop. It was a great way to pass the time before heading back to the van to spend the night.
While we were visiting these churches we were joined by another British family Tim, Ruth and their lovely kids Charlie and Billie. The rest of the evening was spent with us all sitting around the campfire talking about all subjects under the sun, relaxing over a pint or a glass of wine and enjoying the spectacular sunset the location afforded us. It was another cracking night. Billie and Charlie are doing a blog of their travels and if you want you can look them up here.
The next morning we all packed up, said our good-byes and had a last look at the wonder that is Matera. We had picked up a pretty good map in a tourist info centre which showed what produce was made in all the villages in the region and we needed little encouragement to go in search of locally made pasta, cheese, bread and such. Unfortunately we had forgotten to factor in the Italian way of having lunch from about one to five in the afternoon (they do start early and finish late though) which meant that we didn't have too much joy on that front once we had found our way to the appropriate villages, but we did get so see some pretty nice villages off the beaten track. Windy streets up sheer cliffs and vistas over valleys broken up by castles and those cool motorbike/van cross breeds. It was fairly obvious these were not affluent areas, but the locals were friendly and the villages themselves were very picturesque and well worth the detour. We were heading for Potenza to join the Motorway, or Autostrade, on past Naples to Pompei. En route we decided to rest for the night on the side of a Lago after a day seeing some nice villages.
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