It was a bright and sunny day – perfect for
view the local attraction – the Sassi
– homes hewn out of the rock. These are present throughout the city of Matera.
Matera is situated on a rugged hilltop next to a steep and narrow river
valley, more like a ridge really.
The girls wanted to go on a guided walking tour
but I wanted to go it alone because I dread the slow shuffling pace that a tour
entails. We happily went our separate ways. I soon had cause to regret my
decision, as it was difficult to find one’s way as the streets were not well
labelled. At one point I had to ask a policeman to locate me on the map. After
that there were signs for the various official walking routes so I just went in
the direction that fancied. I went into two of the Sassi.
The first consisted of four rooms, one behind the other. I
was invited to join up with a group of Americans to benefit from the guided
tour inside and I was happy of avail myself of this kind gesture. A salient
feature of these abodes is that they also housed the family’s precious animals.
This of course lead to unsanitary conditions and the Italian government issued
a law in the late 50s to close them all down, i.e. evict the residents. They
were given dwellings elsewhere outside the city. When they were declared a
UNESCO World Heritage site in the 90s they started to renovate many of them for
the tourist trade. Some consolation to the previous residents as they would now
be worth a great deal. I asked the guide how long it might have taken to carve
out that dwelling. He said four or five men could do it within a year.
The girls’ guide, Franco, was 60 years old and was born in a Sassi but was five when
they were moved out. He showed them where he was born and where his grandfather
lived.
There are cave houses so there are also
cave churches.
We had dinner at Il Cantuccio, one of the restaurants recommended by Franco the
guide. We all had an excellent meal. For our wine we couldn't go past a modest little number called Carpe Diem
The world must be a small place – the people
at the table next to us were the same people seated near us in the lobby of first
hotel in Lecce while we were waiting to be shuttled to the other hotel. These
people were from Connecticut.
It was a small place and the chef Michele
came out on multiple occasions to check that we were enjoying his handiwork. We
had ordered a mixed plate of Dolci (sweets).
Michele brought them out and made a great show of explaining to us that one of
them was named Sise
delle Monache – a rather naughty one that you, dear reader, must Google for yourself. He
was a fun guy and we talked a lot toward the end of the meal. It turns out he
was born near Frankfurt in Germany of Italian parents. He was 28 when he
left and spent a few years in France before returning to his parents’ home town
here in Matera. He has been running the restaurant for eleven years. He only
dated German girls in Germany and had a hard time connecting here in Matera, but
eventually married a local girl. Sadly they were divorced three years ago. Once
he learned two of us could speak German the conversation shifted up a gear. He
had a great time flirting with the “girls”.
It was a wonderful way to wind up our nine
days with Anita and Rhonda. They are off to Paris tomorrow, while we hang about
here another day before making a cross-country dash to Sicily the following
day.
Again, the city was full of people of all
ages from early evening until we got home after 11pm. This form of living is so
attractive, it’s a shame we have lost it (if we ever had it). I attribute this
partly to
a * The size of the city
b * The compactness of the city.
Let’s call it Kesselhut’s Law. I’ll work on
the theory later.
No comments:
Post a Comment