The sassi are what give Matera its one-in-the-world character. They are clearly the heart of this city, the soul-touching, psyche-jarring aspect that affected me so deeply. But it does have a city that emerged on top of the caves, one that, for a time turned its back to the sassi. It is a pleasant city [...]
Archive for the ‘Travel Information’ Category
The “New” Matera
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on April 12, 2012 | 2 Comments »
A Matera Cave Dwelling
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on April 10, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Casa Grotta di vico Solitario provides a glimpse of what it was like to inhabit one of the caves. This is unquestionably a sanitized version. As you look at the images imagine what the smells must have been like and how dark it would have been with only one door and perhaps one or two [...]
Serendipity in Matera
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on April 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »
You just never know! We were lucky enough to have made reservations at alla Dolce Vita B&B. Matera has dozens of choices for places to stay. But we, fortunately, ended up here where Vincenzo, a native son of many generations, and his French wife Carla have set up shop. They are a treasure. Vincenzo is [...]
Surreal Matera
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on April 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In ancient times one would approach Matera with no idea a city existed. Today buildings arise from the ground. But it is not hard to imagine, as one rides the train over the somewhat barren rolling plain leading to Matera, what it was like in ancient times – no hint of a city below your [...]
Alberobello – Beautiful Forest
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on April 1, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Alberobello, which means beautiful forest, is an incredibly impossible town. On two hills sit approximately 1500 trulli. One hill has about 1000 of them, the other 500. The hills are a Unesco World Heritage site because of the houses. The hill with 1000 houses is full of tourist oriented shops. The other is more of [...]
The Trullo House
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on March 28, 2012 | 2 Comments »
We anticipated much seeing our first Trullo (trulli is the plural form in Italian) house as we headed south from Bari. The trulli are unique to a small area in Puglia, and spilling a bit over into Basilicata. They are a distinctive round building with cone shaped roof, often clumped together in groups to form [...]
Martina Franca IV – Food and Generosity
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on March 25, 2012 | 2 Comments »
One of the great anticipations we had in visiting southern Italy was to see how the food is different. And it is. We had read there was lots of lamb and kid, but we saw no kid. And lamb was much more in evidence in Abruzzo. We had two really wonderful meals in Martina Franca. [...]
Martina Franca III
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on March 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Lending beauty to the city are several of their piazzas, which are wonderfully scaled for human use and feel so comfortable. Three piazzas flow one into the other. Piazza Plebiscito houses their Basilica, Piazza Immacolata has a wonderful arcade. It flows into Piazza Garibaldi, which holds a very good restaurant. The road encircling the city [...]
Martina Franca II
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on March 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The town was formed in the 900′s by people fleeing the Arab invasion of the port city of Taranto. In 1300 the French Prince of Taranto, Philip Anjoo, granted tax privileges and exemptions to Martina Franca. (This is where Franca came into the city name. Martina comes from the city patron, St. Martin.) These priveleges [...]
Martina Franca
Posted in Southern Italy, Travel Information on March 19, 2012 | 4 Comments »
I was not expecting to be taken by Martina Franca. I knew it was Baroque architecture and I’ve never been a fan of all the heavy ornamentation. I knew Lecce was an even bigger Baroque city and chose not to visit it for that reason. Just goes to show you that expectations can sorely mislead [...]
