Thursday, February 19, 2015

Matera, the wild

 Signage is not the strong point in Matera, there are few signs and when we first arrived, I didn't realize that our hotel was actually in Sasso Caveoso. We arrived at Sasso Barisano and had to ask for directions. This forced us on a roundabout way through the town and into the road built by Mussolini to join the two sassi. We saw the wild and craggy gulley of Park Murgia across the way. There was a stream that passed at the bottom. This was some strange scenery and one we were completely unfamiliar to, but beautiful and enigmatic.

 Across the gulley, at Park Murgia, there are traces of civilization, there are still churches with frescoes, albeit not opened to the public. There's just not enough resources to restore everything and keep them opened. Theft of frescoes have happened when visitors chipped away at huge blocks of frescoes. Read my Kindle book, now available on Amazon.


This is just one church that is perched on a craggy and rocky outcrop. They are all over the place and it still has this eerie and other worldly feel to it and that's what makes Matera so special.

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