V5 travels: Mostly Matera - the Sassi, Dinner and Jazz

We arrived in Matera by car, and after traversing some laneways found a spot to park the trusty Yaris. On getting out of the car a Mumma yelled at us from the first floor building in a stream of very emotive Italian. I held my hands up and said I was sorry and that I only spoke English. Luckily a man in a nearby doorway heard what was going on and came to our aid in broken English. He explained we had parked in front of a mortuary…it looked like a normal door but on closer inspection had the word “Funeboro” amongst other words. We yelled up our thanks, and the kind young man helped us move forward to avoid the doorway so caskets could enter! Welcome to Matera!!!

We are staying in a small apartment in the new part of Matera - a 5 minute walk from the main areas.

Matera, known for cave dwelling (and building ontop of and incorporating caves) has been continually populated since Palaeolithic times (7000 BC evidence) just on the edge of the ancient part. We wandered down to look at views at sunset - although we couldn’t see the sunset due to an inconvenient hill, the light was beautiful - we watched the swallows circle for the night over the ancient city - the Sassi (singular), or Sasso (plural).

Eventually finding a dining place, we had a lovely bottle of Rose and pizza for dinner while sitting outside in a lane way as the night fell dark. Walking back to our room at 10ish, there were still so many people in the streets and we felt completely safe.

Tuesday morning, I awoke and after some catchup business via email, looked for a tour in English. I found one that started in 45 minutes so it was a hurried morning to get ready and get to the meeting point. We met Cossimo, our guide, and an English couple (Harry and Liz) and another Australian (Erica). For the next 2.5 hours Cossimo educated us on the history of the Sassi, not just the architecture but also the social and political history of the place. He was a fantastic guide - having been born and bred in the area, he had ample experience and was working as a guide for movie production companies also - having worked on Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ, the latest James Bond “Not time to Die” and Bruce Beresford movies.

We understood the political and social history after Cossimo’s explanation about the government mandate to move citizens from the caves in the 1950s-1970s. Unfortunately many of these people were worse off financially once moved, though their health was better, they lost their equity/ownership. There is now some sort of balance needed between tourism and conservation. Anyone can lease a dwelling (30 years), paying renovation costs is then offset against rent. However, there is no resale, and no equity for loans, so it has been extremely hard to populate and conserve the area. Aside from the fact that not many wish to live in an area that is not accessible by car, has no schools and is rudimentary in modern standards. Business is taking advantage and 5 star hotels are taking over old buildings for tourists to experience a Sassi. The business can be sold so there is money to be made. The key word is Balance and since 2019 when Matera was named as a European cultural capital tourist visitation has nearly doubled.

We saw different vistas from various perspectives, visited a rock church that was once a Benedictine Monastary and walked the laneways. It was an extremely interesting few hours. Afterward we lunched with Erica who was travelling on her own.

Dinner that night was in a lovely restaurant that we had noted as being very popular - we had tried to get a table the night before but were told ‘not possible’, so we booked for the night. We enjoyed a lovely local white wine - Vittoria, made by the restauranteur from ‘Greco’ grapes. After we finished our meals, a jazz band started to play. Here we both were in an open restaurant in a lane way, with a jazz band playing and lots of locals standing in the lane way drinking and listening to the music…it was very special.