Matera to Rome

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Decided to use Navman for the first time. I found it unusual that Navman didn’t accept the destination but thought it was just the street number and so removed that and it seemed to accept it. The system worked perfectly well until we got to the final 200 metres.
First Navaman instructed us to go down a One way street the wrong way. Roger didn’t mind doing this until we got to a Piazza at the bottom of the street with 3 traffic police blowing madly on their whistles. I presented our Navman screen and they pointed and insisted “No.” We decided to park and investigate. (Luckily I remembered to write down the name of the street we parked in.)

We proceeded back to the Piazza and asked the police for help. None spoke English but one spoke broken French which perfectly matched my broken French. He decided he would escort us on foot.
We crossed the Piazza and went down steps which were labelled Via Lombardi: the street we were trying to drive down! We then spent about 15 minutes with his GPS phone wandering around and looking down upon the most amazing ravine with clusters of cobbled streets, little car free lanes and houses built into the rock face before we made contact by phone with our hotel and he came and got us.
This is a World Heritage listed area called “Sassi” by the locals. Fascinating. It was once a very poor urban area which was basically condemned then gradually restored and now UNESCO protected. Many parts are still in disrepair but there is a lot of building work being done.
Then travelled to Rome via Ravello for lunch at Villa Maria on the Amalfi Coast. Wow!

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Photos

Via Lombardi
Via Lombardi- try driving down this!

Matera
Sassi complex

Matera
Hillside view

Amalfi
Exceptional coastline and views

Ravello view
View from Villa Maria

Amalfi
Amalfi

Comments

[stacey]

italy envy
wow, it sounds and looks absolutely spectacular. the two of you must be having a ball!! the photos of the amalfi coast are prettier than i remember from all those years ago... Sassi looks amazing. A geography teachers dream hey!! I hope you took loads of photos because it looks fab from the few you've put up! very funny about the cheekie navman trying to get you down that little flight of stairs...if it wasn't for the italian "bastardo" you would have been really stuck. keep your blogs coming. its so good hearing about all the adventure you're having. love you xx