The weather forecast called for a cooler, wetter day. The best thing to do on those days is to find indoor activities. In Matera, the main activities can be summed up as visiting the interiors of different Sassi, so that’s what we planned.
First stop, breakfast at Oi Marì. In the middle of the Sassi (a great location to launch our visits afterward), it was recommended by the Routard and was well rated on Google Maps. Turns out it used to be a restaurant and pizzeria, but dropped all pizza from the menu sometime in the past year. The food was good, but not to the level of the praise and raving we had read. It doesn’t help to have your heart set on bread with sauce and end up with pasta for breakfast. Take our review with a grain of salt.
Casa Noha is our first stop on the Sassi tour. We expected to visit, but it turned out to be a 30-minute video about the history of the Sassi. From the first inhabitants all the way to the present day. It solidified some of my understanding of the region's history. The last 5 minutes or so are a monologue on how fantastic the city is. I did strain an eye roll muscle on that part, but it’s a small price to pay for the rest of the content.
Our visit to Casa Noah also made us understand that the other Sassi wouldn’t give any real sense of what a Sassi was. At best, they would be an attraction full of veneer and very little substance. We decided to skip and go day drinking.
We made a quick stop at Laboratorio di Gelateria Artigianale for gelato, then day-drank at Ottica I Talenti. If you know a little Italian, you may have wondered whether I needed my eyes examined. I don’t blame you. Actually, the optician realized it has a small terrace overlooking the Sassi. So why not make extra money and serve drinks on the terrace? The wine was good, the service was quick, and the terrace had an unbeatable view. We very much enjoyed our stop there.
At this point, the weather forecast promised rain and called for thunderstorms for a couple of days, yet we had not seen any. It always found a way to miss us. Our luck ran out as we were enjoying the view from the terrace. It was a light rain, nowhere near a thunderstorm, but steady enough to dilute our wine. If there’s one thing we won’t stand for, it’s putting water in our wine. We headed back to our apartment to let it pass.
Walking through Matera, we’ve noticed Matera bread being advertised. As we were going to sit on our ass for a couple of hours waiting for dinner, we figured we would grab one and try it. We stopped at Panificio Casa del Pane on our way. The bread is sold by the kilo and turns out to be pretty big. Our loaf was a little over two kilograms. We also grabbed what turned out to be huge, delicious homemade chocolate-chip cookies.
It’s excellent bread. So much so that I had to do my research to understand what makes it so. Matera bread is made with yeast base, durum wheat flour, salt, and water. Based on my research, the “secret” of its flavour is how the yeast base is made. Spring water and fresh fruit are put to macerate produce the yeast. That’s what gives it its unforgettable flavour. In any case, something not to miss. Unlike us, buy it early in your Matera visit, as multiple kilos of bread will take time to finish.
We came back out for dinner at Osteria Pico—a favourite place of the Routard and in the Sassi. I haven’t seen the kitchen, but operating a kitchen in a cave must be its own special kind of hell. Just the dining room got hot (above 25°C) despite the cool weather outside (18°C) once all the guests had arrived. I’m guessing the kitchen must be very sweaty with steamers for the pasta running nonstop. The meal itself was good and with decent execution. The mixed starter was a good sampling. The only cloud was the secondi stew, which turned out unremarkable. We should have had the grilled meat that looked excellent from the table over.
Still, spending a couple of hours in a restaurant built into the Sassi gave us a glimpse of how hot it must have been when large families and livestock lived in small caves with no ventilation. If a well-ventilated restaurant could get that warm so easily, I can’t imagine how bad it was in the 1900s before the evacuation.
After two days, we managed to get back to our apartment without getting lost in the Sassi. This place is getting a little easier to navigate. That knowledge, however, will become useless tomorrow as we’re heading to Taranto.
