Matera, one of the oldest cities in the world, is meant to impress us with its cave dwellings, the Sassi. But instead of visiting the cave dwellings, we let ourselves drift. In Italian old town alleys with a street café atmosphere.
When we arrive, the city is in early evening hustle and bustle. We find a parking space in the middle of the city. In front of us the railway station, next to us a large construction site and behind us the ring road. Sounds romantic, doesn't it? The good news: no trains are running because of the construction site. So it's quiet at the station. And because it's early in the evening, there's no more construction going on. Good news too. And because of the construction site, we don't stand out at all with our camper van in the car park crowd. So all in all, it's good. We don't yet know that at night the high-horsepower, exhaust-noisy party guests testosterone past our bedroom.
We stroll through the car-free old town. A dream. Founded in 251 BC and inhabited since Neolithic times, Matera was European Capital of Culture in 2019. Despite the lack of visible order, the houses are connected by winding staircases and pathways and from a distance resemble a painting. Matera's picturesque setting is made even more impressive by the rugged river valley with the Gravina.
In the cathedral café we drink a hot chocolate (and have to wait out the rain) and then stroll leisurely through the alleys. Now in the evening, when the lights come on and the setting sun bathes the sky in bright colours, the atmosphere is particularly impressive, calm and devout.
We find a nice place for dinner, then watch the street artists playing music and make our way to the "Hotel Felix". In the evening we have almost 20,000 steps on the clock and our feet and legs let us feel the medieval stone floor. And it is good that we have already "slept in", because during the night we are repeatedly interrupted in our sleep by roaring engines.
We should probably be more careful when looking for a pitch in future.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
Do you think our travel experiences might be of interest to others? Then you can share the Share post quietly. By e-mail or however you want to do it.
In addition, if you haven't already done so, you can use our Newsletter subscribe. Here you will receive all our experiences in your mailbox whenever we publish something new or once a week on Fridays: live-pur.ch/newsletter
We are also very happy to hear your views, your tips or your questions. Just comment on the post!
But Matera already made it 😉
Yes, the city has really become beautiful again, cultural capital that is. Sounds like a nice evening in any case.👍
We were disappointed with the cave dwellings ( in 2021), had hoped that they would have restored more than in 2003.
Hence the reference to Ginosa, where there is a very well-preserved, well-kept cave town. Next time then 😉
It's great fun to follow you through Italy. Thank you 🤗
Kind regards Sabine
Dear Sabine, we have had so many cave dwellings, especially in Cappadocia/Turkey. And at some point it was over with cave dwellings. We'd rather spend a cosy evening in the really beautifully lit old town.
Kind regards - Heike