64. Alberobello to Matera

Today was intended to be a nice short day between two must-see places, to allow plenty of time for visiting. That was indeed the plan…but…(Robin’s favourite bits!)…

Shennae has once again  been suffering from an unusually regular release of air over the past few days. But she seemed ok. It did not seem too serious…but last night, she lost the lot!!

Not a pleasant discovery first thing in the morning.

I am of course talking about her back tyre. Flat as a pancake…and no amount of pumping would make any difference for the tyre was off the rim etc etc. Thank goodness it was Monday…for if this had happened yesterday we would have been truly buggared (possibly appropriately given our location!)….and we found a bike shop on line. Phones not working…so I hopped on to my bike (no release of air for me!)…and took her wheel to an address, which turned out to be a house…complete with ace bike workshop! Five minutes later….all sorted. Hard as a rock! 

I pedalled back to our Trullo, truly rapt….put the wheel down…but there was no bounce at all. Flaccid as ever once again.

Back to the bike shop. Repeat!

Temperamental things…tubeless tyres can be. Pumped it up…with a shock of air (literally)…waited…then very slowly rotated the wheel in a bath. Checking the tyre…and every spoke hole for a leak. 

Nothing.

The poor guy shrugged. (No English in this whole exchange). I shrugged. Crossed my fingers….and biked back to the Trullo once again truly hopeful!

These things take time. So by the time we had taken our ‘included’ Trullo breakfast at a local cafe (Italian breakfasts really are fairly miserable things, normally…a cup of coffee and one ‘cornetto’, a sort of croissant filled with something sweet)…it was 11.30 before we were on the road! Our Matera time sadly diminished.

Lovely ride today…at times with the blustery wind behind us! 

Road a bit busy for the first 15km to Noci…but then onwards through Gioia del Colle and on to Matera…lovely deserted roads. Rural life in Souther Italy. Harvest in full swing. Nothing spectacular…just very nice easy riding.

And we saw lots of cattle…! Now that might seem strange..that it is noteworthy…but despite all the wonderful Italian dairy products (cheeses etc) and lots of beef on the menu…it is really quite unusual to see cattle..dairy or beef! Today..we saw lots of both!! Perhaps they do things differently down here in the far South.

And so to Matera. Another place I had never heard of. 

I had seen pictures on the web…and as we approached the city….we saw nothing like what I had been expecting at all. All a bit modern. And not very pleasant. Just as the streetside buildings started getting older…we found our apartment (a gem actually)….walked out on to the balcony…to see this. What a wonderful surprise!

Quick shower and time to explore.

I have a feeling I might have said this before…but Matera truly is the most extraordinary city I have never heard of! 

One of the oldest inhabited places on the globe. Started as a cave settlement (somewhere between 2 and 10 thousand BC)…built into the sides of two adjoining gorges…which grew and grew into a proper city…clinging to three sides of those two gorges. Relatively oppulent houses…cheek by jowel with old cave houses….but by the 1950’s this was really just a fairly sad place to live…so from then until the late ‘70’s new housing was provided elsewhere…and it was all but abandoned. Churches etc aside of course!

And it is really only in the last forty years or so it has come back to life. Still lots of work to do. 

But so fascinating…to be able to see the evolution from cave city…to real city….right in front of you! 

An extraordinary bit of very visual and physical history. 

And not very busy. YET! (…commercial bits, for sure….but limited)

Not like Alberobello.

All I can say is…….go and visit. SOON! This is an extraordinary world class place. And within ten years..it will be surely added to the Rome/Venice/Florence list. Except for the fact that you have to walk…..a lot….up and down stairs….! Just what you want when you step off a bike!! Haha! But so worth it. Really….such a wonderful place!