A modern ancient city

So the last stop on our visit in Puglia wasn't actually in Puglia.  Instead, it's actually situated in the neighbouring Basilicata region.  With its close proximity to Bari, it had become a generally accepted part of most tours through Puglia and so we decided to also link this into our own trip.  We had parked our car in the convenient and modern parking garage just on the edge of the old town.  Our accommodation had helpfully arranged for a porter to come help us with our bags.  We weren't staying too long, but it still didn't seem the best to leave any bags in the car of the next few days.  Looking at the maps, I had initially thought that I could just do it all myself over a couple of trips.  Our hotel had strongly recommended we use the porter service and so instead we waited at the parking garage for the driver to arrive.  The man who arrived seemed friendly and kind.  He quickly took our bags, then offered to take all our other smaller bags.  I noted that I had only paid for the two large bags, but he smiled as he waved me off and insisted that it was fine.  Once he set off, we started our own walk towards the hotel.  My previous thoughts on moving the luggage had clearly been naive thinking.  The sheer number of stairs and uneven cobblestoned steps we had to traverse to get to the hotel was an undertaking for us without the luggage.  Trying to navigate everything with our luggage may not have been impossible, but it would have likely left me exhausted and unable to do much for a while.

We had arranged to stay in the middle of the "Sassi" of Matera, the famous old town that had been built up over many millennia into the hills and rocks of the town. On our very first night, we were quickly impressed by the dramatic beauty of this town.  Around each corner, the views seemed out of scenes from cinema (which was the case given the huge number of films set in this town).  Compared to many of the other Italian towns we had visited, there was a lack of colour to our surrounding.  It sapped the joy out of the place, but replaced it with a brooding and antique feel.  The contrast was not in the colour, but was instead in the shades and the light.  

Every step we took through the winding, narrow and hilly streets felt like a journey through history and the past.  With everything looking so washed out and faded, it made our wanderings feel extra special.  Everything just felt so old and ancient around us.  It was like it looked so faded out because it was just so old and untouched.  Surely all of this had been here as it was for centuries, developing this look through the brutal passage of time?

It was all of course thoroughly modernised and cleaned up, but it "felt" real.  More so than many of the other places we had visited.  That didn't change the fact that this was in a way a bit of a ancient theme park.  It had the long history for certain, but everything had been built up and renovated to look a certain way.  We walked past more than enough places being renovated and reconstructed during our explorations to confirm this.

We kept exploring the town more.  The more we learnt, the more depressing it became.  This town had at one point relatively recently been considered to be the "shame of Italy" due to the poverty and conditions of its residents.  There were museums dotted around the Sassi which recreated how the local population lived historically.  It was a spartan lifestyle in harsh conditions.  What didn't seem to be as well advertised though was that after those local residents were relocated out of the town, much of the town was then subsequently bought up by outsiders who then took full advantage of the cheap prices and redeveloped it into the fancy and high end tourist destination it now was.  So even with the improvement in the town's fortunes, it still wasn't the original inhabitants who benefited.

Being out of Puglia, we also got to experience a whole different type of cuisine.  After the lovely fresh and light food of Puglia, full of seafood and the bright seasonal vegetables, what we had in Matera was a stark contrast.  It was heavy and rich food.  There were slow cooked stews, aged cheeses and dense breads. It was good.  But it was just in such a sharp contrast to what we had been eating.  With the warm days, it also didn't exactly match up with what we were feeling.  Still, I was happy to enjoy this new cuisine.  There was plenty of lamb options for me which seemed to be a local specialty.

I was glad to have visited Matera, but I wasn't so sure I would be back.  It was an undeniably beautiful place, and there were many times which I felt truly awestruck as I walked its street.  However, the days I had spent in the town felt enough.  There were only so many streets I could explore, only so many viewpoints I could clamber too before it began to feel slightly repetitive. 

 In our hotel, we met a lovely Argentinian couple who had been in Matera for a few days.  The man gently enquired what I thought of Matera.  I responded bluntly that I liked it, but that two days was enough for me.  He seemed incredibly relieved with my response and started to confess to me how bored he was feeling.  They had already been in Matera for three days and he had run out of things to do.  He didn't want to seem ungrateful, but he explained they were arranging to go to a nearby beach just for a change.  I understood exactly where he came from.  This town was an incredible place to experience, but it was still quite a small place and there were limits to how long it could hold the attention.