Matera At Night & The Drive To Ostuni

MATERA AT NIGHT

This part of the blog actually occurred last night in Matera and happened after we had already posted yesterday's edition . . . hope this doesn't cause too much confusion !

Tom and I wanted to go out and see Matera lit up at night, after dinner. I had made pasta with local marinara sauce (OOOHHH SO GOOD !) which Tom paired with a good red wine from the Apulia region of eastern Italy - where we are tonight. We were properly fortified and since it was so pleasant outside, we decided to see if anyone else would be out for an evening stroll.

It must be very popular to walk around Old Town on a Saturday night because the streets and squares were packed with people of all ages . . . families, teenagers, and older couples were everywhere ! The cathedral, churches, alleyways and Sassi areas were all flooded with light, and all the shops, cafes, restaurants and nightclubs were crowded.

We were so glad that we made the effort to walk into town once more, even after all of the walking we had already done.














THE DRIVE TO OSTUNI

The drive from Matera to Ostuni took us out of the rugged mountains and across flat farmland. Many of the fields were nothing but poppies in bloom . . . just beautiful !

We left the Autostrada and turned onto secondary roads that took us up and over rolling hills. It reminded us of the back roads of Ireland, except that we were driving on the correct side of the road. The route took us across the "arch" of the boot of Italy, and in several places we could see the Mediterranean Sea. We were now in the heart of olive oil and wine country. As we passed through several small towns, we got our first glimpse of Trulli, the dry stone huts with a conical roof, for which this area is famous.

Tom and I arrived in Ostuni earlier than we had planned, so we found a place to park the car, walked into the town, and treated ourselves to a rich, chocolate Gelato.

Our lodging for tonight is to be in an old cellar, and we were delighted when our AirBnB host, Renza showed us around. Our cellar apartment is charming, and Renza provided us with fresh, organic strawberries and oranges for our breakfast, tomorrow. We are welcome to use the washer and dryer, but they are up a set of scary stairs !

She has had only one other guest from America . . . most of her guests have been from England, Holland, Japan and South Korea.

Renza and her teen-aged daughter told us that there is a fund-raising festival in the town, tonight. There were bands playing in several places, and once again, many happy people in the streets.

This part of our trip must be about cellars, because we had delicious pizza in a cellar restaurant in the Old Town.

Walking back to our own cellar, we saw a beautiful sunset over the Adriatic Sea.