After sending the last blog from the roadside we continued on our quest for
the next place to stay for the night. We did have ideas of hitting a
campsite on the east coast of Calabria near Sibari, but after eventually
locating it down a very rough and ready 'road' we changed our minds. It was
quite a busy site but not terribly exciting and seemed a long way from
anywhere. We did however bump into a German couple, the Norwegian Germans,
that we originally met at the Scarabeo site and then also at Giardini Naxos.
Seeking an alternative we ended up at Matera in Basilicata. We were heading
there sometime anyway and as we were not having any luck locating anywhere
else to stay it seemed like the best plan. We parked in a car park behind
the castle, official camper parking for 10€ per 24hours. There was water and
a waste dump there so it worked out quite well. The town was only a stones
throw away also.
After a nice restful nights sleep we headed into the town centre to locate
the ancient part of the town and the old cave dwellings, the Sassi. It was
quite a site to behold. The old dwellings were created originally back in
the Stone Age from natural caves or hewn out of the bare rock face. They
were lived in up until about 1950 or there about when the inhabitants were
'evicted' due to health and sanitary reasons, or if you want to be cynical
so that the area could be turned into a tourist attraction. The Sassi are
now a UNESCO site, which obviously explains the rubbish that litters all of
the old Sassi. There are a couple that are shown as they would have been
lived in during the last century but the remainder seemed to be used as a
good place to chuck all the rubbish, quite appalling! Anyway, the ancient
town was still very impressive even the 'newer' areas of it. As we did not
want to pay for another night in the car park we headed off again in the
evening and parked for the night across the gorge that runs past Matera with
a great view back of the Sassi and the town with the setting sun behind it.
Wednesday was Liberation Day, a public holiday. So being the sensible people
we are we headed to a major tourist spot not even thinking that it might be
a wee bit busy, Alberobello and the Zona di Trulli. The Trulli are small
stone built huts, they look a bit like African mud huts, and they date back
to well quite literally a long time ago. There are loads dotted all around
the countryside, but the town of Alberobello contains the main
concentration. There are lanes of the things, some not small individual
homes but large multiple Trulli residences, and the ones in town are all
whitewashed, very pretty. Of course only a handful are still lived in and
there were many that were being 'restored', the remainder not surprisingly
were 'tourist shops' selling all sorts of 'Trulli' memorabilia and plenty of
other crap too. After we were all Trullied out we headed off to find a spot
for the night and found a nice one on the coast just outside Polignano a
Mare, at the harbour.
We were lucky to arrive when we did. It was very busy already and there were
a couple of Italian motorhomes there. During the afternoon if became busier
and busier with locals out for a drive and a walk on the beach in the
sunshine, glorious that it was. By nightfall it had emptied out again and
there was only Noddy and another motorhome remaining, nice and peaceful.
Thursday was a bit of a wash out. It started off very overcast and we
visited Ostuni the most stunning hill town in the south of Italy, or so the
guidebook said. It was OK but not very exciting, well not in the rain
anyway. After our usual afternoon search we found a place on the coast for
the night, just south of Polignano this time, and sat out the rain that
arrived. It chucked it down overnight, not surprisingly a sleepless night,
very noisy in a box in the rain I can tell you! It did however wash a lot of
the dust and dirt of Noddy, so can't complain.
Our next destination was San Giovanni Rotondo in the Gargano promontory, the
home of Padre Pio. Who? He was a local priest who had the stigmata on his
hands. He died in 1968 and was canonized just a few years ago. He is a very
big name in the Catholic church in Italy and thousands flock probably every
day in pilgrimage to his place of rest. There is a huge, and I mean huge,
hospital built there for the 'relief of suffering', the church in his name
which is again rather large with endless rooms out the back with all his
belongings and the history of his life, not forgetting his tomb of course.
There is even a separate museum. It is all quite a sight to behold! There
are glass cabinets that contain all his old clothes and mitts. The room that
he lived in is preserved as it was. Behind the main church is another
enormous modern church that I guess is used during the main pilgrimage that
occurs once or twice a year. After we had ingested all we could we headed of
to Monte Saint Angelo a hill town about 20 miles to the east. The main
attraction of Monte S Angelo is the Sanctuary di San Michele Arcangelo where
archangel Michael is said to have appeared several times back in the fifth
century. It is one of the earliest Christian shrines in Europe, and the
church is built down into and out of the rocks, very impressive.
After all the heavy sightseeing we needed a change of direction and headed
north across the Gargano through the national park to its north coast. The
drive up and through the forest was delightful especially as we saw
virtually no other traffic. Only the lack of anywhere to stop to take in the
views of go for a stroll (theoretical) marred the experience. Arriving down
at the coast we entered our usual hunt for a place to stay. We stopped for
dinner at the harbour of Lido del Sole and from there spied some campers
parked just back along the shore on the beachfront. We managed to locate
them and parked for the night. The sunset was amazing with the sun going
down on the sea to the west.
Today we just chilled on the beach with the locals. The only drawback being
all the sand that one transports back into Noddy. Sigh, one of the many
issues we face on a daily basis!
Ciao
M&S
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