The two-hour drive to Matera confirmed the Italian driving practice is a little bit more iffy than what you’ll find in Canada. Stopping at pedestrian crossings is a high priority; following posted signs like no passing or speed limits is optional, and signalling is occasional at best. I’m not sure an Italian would know his turn signal is broken. I’ve never seen one used. It might be how they tell tourists from locals: look at the tourist using his turn signals.
First stop is our Airbnb. Our host may greatly overestimate the amount of stuff his guests might need and just as much underestimate the ability of the same guests to operate common appliances. We have a selection of about 100 different products all over the place. If the pharmacy or convenience store sells it, we have it. He truly dialled the “essentials” to 11. We have everything you need for personal hygiene, in a range of brands and options. I can pick a brand of toothpaste. He also took great pains to introduce us to every appliance (microwave, stove, AC, washing machine, fridge, etc.) and rooms. It took us 20 minutes to graduate from our apartment class and be allowed to pick up our keys. I’m sure it came from a good place, but who needs three different body soaps and a class on operating a microwave?
Matera is a city on a rocky outcrop in Basilicata. The main attraction is the Sassi area, a complex of cave dwellings carved into the mountainside. Except for brief periods, the Sassi have been occupied for over 6,000 years. Evacuated in 1952 due to poor living conditions, and until the late 1980s, it was considered an area of poverty, since many of these houses were, and in some cases still are, uninhabitable. Today, the regeneration of the Sassi, with the aid of the European Union, the government, and UNESCO, is well underway. You’ll find many thriving restaurants, pubs, hotels, B&Bs, and homes.
For our first day in the city, we decided just to get lost in the Sassi. The weather was beautiful, calling us to spend time outside. Also, it’s very easy to lose yourself in the Sassi. It’s beautiful, very torturous (you won’t find a straight line anywhere), and you’re never quite sure if you are walking on someone’s patio, on an intersection of multiple staircases or a combination of both. The GPS won’t be of much help due to the canyon effect. Google Maps will also be awfully useless, since most staircases and narrow passageways aren’t marked on it. If getting lost is easy, have no fear; finding your way out is just as easy. Just keep heading up or down until you see cars. From there, Google can guide you.
Walking through the Sassi can be compared to walking through Venice or an Arab Medina. There’s no straight line to anywhere. Built on a cliff, it also has a lot of staircases. The benefit of all of this is that you keep walking into unexpected places. At any moment, you can turn a corner and get a view of the canyon, a view of the city, a cute little Viccolo (alley), an unexpected plant, fruit tree or street art. On a sunny summer day (but not July as it’s unbearably hot in there, we’re told), the place is just gorgeous. Somebody found the beautiful place dial and cranked it up to 11.
Lunch was complicated; most places closed around 14:30 and reopened around 19:30 for dinner. If they are not closed, they are places that offer a “menu touristico”. You won’t find me in a place that offers a diluted, watered-down “typical meal”. It usually has nothing to do with what you’ll find outside of restaurants specializing in tourist food. We opted for gelato instead. I Vizi degli Angeli Laboratorio di Gelateria Artigianale, besides its long name, offers a wide variety of homemade gelato flavours. Some flavours, like “meteor,” “asteroid,” and “Alabama,” won’t tell you what they are from their names, but they’ll be delicious nonetheless.
Diner, on the other hand, was a complicated affair. Our passage in Matera coincides with the Baccofest (the Basilicata winetour), a local wine festival that lasts Today and tomorrow. You might think it’s a huge bonus, as we’ll get to taste a bunch of local wine just by walking the city, and you would be right. The one big downside is that we’re not the only ones who want to do that. Wine tasting starts at 20:00. No idea when it ends (the website and signage won’t say), but what we’re noticing is that most restaurants are booked because people came to eat and drink!
It took us three restaurant visits to finally find one. By showing up early (20:00), we were lucky enough to get a table at Dalla Padella alla Brace, one of the few restaurants recommended by the Routard. The place looks like nothing, but it produces excellent food. We went for the regional classics: Orecchiette, Peperone di Senise (dried sweet peppers with a chip-like texture), and the local version of the T-Bone steak, served with cheese.
The diner behind us had wine ahead of us. We walked through the now very animated downtown and found the 300-meter road lined with wine-tasting kiosks. 15€ buys you a glass and four tasting tickets. We bought two, but only because we wanted the eight tickets. Out of the about fifteen kiosks we still had to choose eight where we would get the about three-quarters of a glass they call a tasting. Using all of our analytical skills (which of them have white or rose) and a rigorous selection process (which kiosk is near us when our glass is empty), we pulled through with two conclusions: one, that they make damn good wine in the Basilicata, two, we wish we understood more Italian to get the full story behind the wines.
Wine drunk, we went to the cheese station. In addition to four wine tastings, the 15€ also includes a sampling of the Italian version of raclette (hard cheese melted over coals, then scraped onto a piece of bread). Perfect food for heavy drinking, and probably why they’ve included it in the price of entry. It’s like the after-hour poutine but fancier.
Belly full of food and wine, we headed home to rest and prepare for tomorrow.