The Wonderful City of Matera

On the 19th July we set sail from Taranto across the Gulf for 33nm’s, first close hauling, then as the wind came round, on a beam reach averaging 6.8 knots. It didn’t take long and we arrived at a tiny sleepy marina called Marina di Policoro, which is more akin to something in the Florida keys than Italy. The aerial pic I pinched from the internet best describes what I mean…

Moored up all safe and sound we decided to see if we could get a hire car to go and visit the wonderful city of Matera, a must on any Italian Boot itinerary! Our helpful chap in the marina sorted if for us and by 6pm, we had a rather subtle hire car for the next 24 hours…

That evening we drove into the town of Policoro which was a few kilometres away from the marina for a pizza and some vino in the square. Tiny lively place, full to the brim with locals on a night out, not that my pics show that!

Returning to the boat for what we expected to be very calm, peaceful night, instead we found a karaoke bar set up on the roof terrace immediately behind us, did we tell you that the Italians really can’t sing, which drove us to our pit with our earplugs a bit earlier than intended. The music finally stopped at 2am, so we weren’t amused, then it was wonderfully still, you wouldn’t have known the boat was on the water!

With some sleep in hand we woke early the following morning and jumped in our car to drive 45 minutes to Matera, arriving before the sun was at its hottest.. did I tell you we were now in the throws of the Italian heatwave!

Matera

Matera is described as one of the most interesting, unusual and memorable tourist destinations in Italy. In the remote southern region of Basilicata, it is a town famous for its extensive cave-dwelling districts, the sassi. These caves had been inhabited for centuries; some humble and some smarter residences, but by the early twentieth-century the area was a by-word for poverty. Until the 1950s hundreds of families were still living crowded into cave-houses here. The squalor and malaria-ridden conditions became a national scandal and finally the cave residents were moved – by law – to modern buildings on the plateau above. By the 1980s the abandoned caves of Matera were no longer scandalous, but fascinating reminders of the past. A few rather more well-to-do residents moved back and renovated them and in 1993 the town was made a UNESCO World Heritage site, for being “the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region, perfectly adapted to its terrain and ecosystem”. And ever since, Matera has become steadily more popular as an off-the-beaten-track tourist destination. More and more old cave-houses are being converted into comfortable modern dwellings, into hotels, B&Bs and restaurants.

It was absolutely fascinating, making it hard to choose which images to pop in this blog!

Matera “New Town”, on the Plateau above Sassi

Sassi

What a wonderful place, but now with more urgent things to do, like provisioning, (as we had the car we had decided to stock up as much as space on Seaclusion would allow us), and find somewhere to refill our gas bottle, anticipating that any day soon we would run out completely! So off we trotted in search of a large supermarket and a gas station. The supermarket was easy, albeit some 15 kms outside the city in the wrong direction, but needs must, and we did just that, filling the boot to its brim with water and other heavy essentials. A gas place not so, but fortunately after the 2nd stop a helpful Italian pointed us to a place, back in Matera, so off we went again and after some google maps help found this little shop and the old guys, with the help of google translate said he could help us but it would take an hour! So we wandered back onto the main square for a Peroni and soaked up the atmosphere more.

45 mins later, it was ready and we were on our merry way back to Policoro, just in time to return the hire car before the deadline! Then came the challenge of finding homes for all we had bought but for the first time this holiday we can show you a fully stocked wine cellar…

Rather shattered, we settled in for a quiet bite to eat onboard with a bottle of our newly acquired Italian wine. Hahaha, not much luck, as that wonderful terrace above us was again being utilised for some bash, not as bad as karaoke but can’t say we are lovers of Italian music either!. Suffice to say the following morning a complaint to the manager of the marina saw us only paying for 1 night instead of 2!

So, on the morning of 21st July we set off again to do our transit around the sole of the boot and across to Sicily, not being much to see along the way, but still enough for our next chapter!

21st July 2023