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Arco Basso.We escaped the rush hour traffic of Bari by departing early and headed to the hills of Pulgia and the town of Altamura about 45kms away. The town is known for its quality of bread called Pane di Altamura and is sold in numerous other Italian cities. We found the number one baker of the bread, Vincenzo Diele, met and spent time with him in his, “Antico Forno Santa Caterina”, which was constructed and hasn’t changed since 1391. Amazing. It was our friend who we met yesterday, the emperor Frederick who ordered the construction of the large Altamura cathedral which we also visited. We walked and made our way along the many beautiful narrow lanes that make up the old town of Altamura and came across one of the lowest arches in Europe, Arco Basso, at 140cm built in 1799. We happily snapped away as is quite usual for us. Jane and I see things differently and hence our photos and write-ups differ, which is great for our recall of the day.
Onto Matera and our accommodation at Hotel Sassi. We would not have found the place if we hadn’t broken the law and driven our vehicle through pedestrian only
palazzos and lanes until we were stopped by locals waving their arms about, one who is a lawyer and who spoke very good English. He had us park, phone Sassi, and led us to the it. The title, ‘hotel’, had caught us out as it is far from the meaning that we have in Australia. We had been looking for a large building and all that comes with a hotel. After meeting the young female owner who gave us directions of where to park, we explored this most beautiful of towns with its lanes and pedestrian only areas but not before I had to reverse about 100m down a street due to it being ‘one way’. Jane’s fault!! After that stress it was time to again avail myself of a freshly made peasant roll.
We are in a most magnificent part of Matera, overlooking the “Sassi”. I am so happy as this is exactly what and why I came to Italy to see and experience. I’m probably eating too much and have ceased being concerned. I am constantly approaching locals and having happy interludes with them. Why? Because I want to. My poor Italian is slowly returning due to
Arco Fratelli Marvulli 1799the ‘help’ I receive from the locals. My reading of the language is much better than my speaking. Jane picks up languages quickly … her better hearing helps.
We visited the Palombaro Lungo, the biggest cistern in the town which collects spring water and is man-made dating back to the 16
th century. Phenomenal. Its capacity is 5 million litres, has a depth of 16m and a length of 50m. Its shape is extremely irregular as it is the result of many pre-existing caves combined.
We 'hit-the-town' at 8.24pm. The lights were starting to take effect. By the time we had walked the 70m or so to the first square the people were out in force. The atmosphere was joyful. We wandered amongst the crowd until we arrived at an eatery/drinkery and sat down about 6m from the classical orchestra that was ready to entertain the large crowd. The theme was 'Picture Music', with selections from, ET, Braveheart, Forest Gump, Romeo and Juliet, etc with the film excerpts being shown behind the orchestra. Sensational night.
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