No Expectations

Welcome to Matera... Last Friday we headed off for Matera. At 3 weeks into this trip each day has become a surprise because I never had time to research where we were going at this stage. So I had absolutely no idea what we were going to find in Matera. Vieste had been so cool, how could we top that...

Back on the bus... we stopped mid morning in ancient Alberobello where we were introduced to cone-shaped trulli houses and partook of a local food and wine tasting from the Basilicata region. It was a family run store and they were very nice - the owner was trained as a Sommelier and spoke pretty good English. We picked up some great snacks like toasted cannelloni beans and pepperocini relish. Plus wine of course. Then we wandered the town and found an enoteca (wine bar) in a cave which we immediately liked.

Trulli in Alberobella...

I'm roughing it, aren't I?

Back on the bus for only a few hours this time and we arrived in Matera. For this town we had a true Rick Steves experience... we were dropped off with our luggage on the side of the road just as we got into town. Then we had to drag our suitcases over cobblestone streets to our hotel. Most of this vacation our luggage has either been taken by taxi to the hotel from the bus or we were dropped off right at the hotel. It didn't used to be this way for RS tours. I guess either Rick or his clientele are aging...

The group makes it to our hotel... aren't they a pretty sight?

I was blown away by my first glimpse of Matera. You can't imagine it. Caves (sassi) homes carved out of rock, built up and expanded. It looked like something out of a movie. Actually, this town had been the setting for several movies including Mel Gibson's recent bloody movie about Christ.

This is Matera, the view from our patio.

It's pretty cool.

Our sassi was posh with a living room, a lower level bedroom including a teeny tiny little bathroom... and a roof top terrace with a breath taking view. Can you tell what's coming next? Oh yes, party time again!!

Our terrace patio...

That night we had a group dinner and gorged ourselves on antipasti of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, little balls of some veggie that I loved, and other delectables. Then there was a noodle soup with garbanzos and the secondi were these roasted meats that were fantastic... The 17th was both Susan's and Linda's birthday so there was much celebrating.

Antipasti...

Primi Piatti...

Secondi...does that not look really good?

Grillin'

Happy Birthday Susan!

The next day we got a tour of the city and we got ready for the big party. This is the one that seems to happen some time on each of our tours, when everyone gets supplies and we do it up big time. A thunderstorm rolled thru that evening so Donato was a great guide and got us a cave in the hotel to party in. I think you just need to see the pictures to know that it was a great time. We consumed about 17 bottles of wine between the pre-function in our room and the big party. I was hurting the next day...it's going down bad!

Cave party!

What a spread!

Ted, Cave Dancer... with glowing halo provided by Donato and Mauritzio!!

More later.

Chow!!