Blogs from Basilicata, Italy, Europe - page 2

Hey guys! I spent 3 weeks in October traveling; sorry for the lack of updates. Here's a belated post about my trip around France and Italy with my mom the first 2 weeks of October: In 2010, my mom and I decided to start taking French classes. We wanted something to do together, and we had both studied French when we were younger but forgotten all of it. To motivate us to study, we planned a trip to France in 2013. 3 years and 10 terms at theAlliance Française de Portland later, I met my mom in Marseille for an unforgettable trip. :) Our first stop after Marseille was Arles, to see the Roman ruins and sites of several of Van Gogh's paintings. Then Avignon, with the beautiful half-destroyed bridge and Pope castle. Pont du Gard ... read more

Matera is an ancient city in southern Italy , province of Basilicata. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to wander around the city due to a sun stroke, so I spent several hours at the local hospital and headed to Caserta after. Caserta reminded me a lot of Petergoff in Saint Petersburg. The grand park with stunning fountains,sculptures, and waterfall is the largest in Italy! ... read more

The Most Beautiful Village in Italy - PIETRAPERTOSA! I first researched on some place unique in nature and nothing specific on my mind, what to see, what to experience or what's more: what possibly can Basilicata offer apart from how a typical traveler would expect from the ever endless Italy can be given to a clueless traveler like me. Here I am, using my most reliable source of search engine - google! Google for pictures. Google for exciting places to see in Southern Italy and I was being strike upon those Italian houses on high elevation along the narrow hill (so I guessed) or mountain (not entirely sure either). Since I will be on my way to Matera anyway, it is just about half an hour away from Matera, Pietrapertosa looked amazing to me and would ... read more

Geo: 40.6687, 16.6061The weight of all time, history, and all the pain and suffering of mankind - it's something you can feel here in Matera, if that makes any sense at all. Quite frankly, I'm not sure that it does, but places like this leave you at a loss for words, unable to articulate emotions or thoughts with any degree of clarity or meaning, reducing your descriptions to something abstract. I've been to nearly 60 countries, and I can safely say that I have never seen anything like the Sassi, two districts of stone houses carved out of the caves and cliffs of Matera. Completely unique and otherworldly, it's not something you could conceive of, in even the most fantastic of dreams. A simple stroll through its streets and alleyways leaves you breathless, skin riddled with ... read more

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Arrived bright and early in Bari on the Superfast overnight ferry from Patras. Back in a land where our sat nav functions - thankfully - as getting onto the road south proved interesting having to navigate through the congested streets of this port city. We were headed to Alberobello recommended ( thanks Barry ) as a must see place. Alberobello is a small town and comune in the province of Bari. It has about 11,000 inhabitants and is famous for its unique Trulli houses part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites list since 1996. Once we turned west from the coast road the drive became very pleasant across rolling countryside. Here we passed farms and houses built in the Trulli style. Alberobello is a sizeable town of which the old part is ... read more