Friday 11th April 2008

The first Truli houses were built in 1400 and were simple conical buildings consisting of a single room and built entirely of dry stone without mortar. It is said that the Count of Alberobello, Gian Girolamo Acquaviva D'Argona (what a name!) had the idea of building them this way in order to avoid paying a punitive housing tax to the King of Naples. When the royal authorities arrived they simply took the house apart, although reconstruction must have taken some time. From about 1600 the cone was mounted on a square of walls thus creating a more spacious living area. Alcoves were added for bedrooms and larger structures were built incorporating a number of Truli cones to provide a multi-room house. The stipulation of dry construction was also relaxed and some two storey buildings were built. Although the largest concentration of Truli buildings in Alberobello (over 1000 in the Rione Monti area) are given over to tourism (shops, restaurants, bars, holiday homes), many hundreds of others in the town are still lived in by local people.
We walked the 2 km into the centre of the town and did a tour of all of the Truli areas and, as you will see from the photographs, they were very impressive. During the walk back we spotted a wine museum and decided to take a look. It was well laid out with sections on rural life, the Truli dwellings, viticulture and wine and all with English explanations. The visit was concluded with a brief tasting of their wines, very good but not cheap.
Photos: A terrace of Truli; Truli roofs in the Rione Monti area; The Sovereign Trulo built for a priest in the 18th century and is a very unusual two storey structure built without mortar; One of the Truli still lived in by the locals.

Thursday 10th April 2008

We set off for our next destination, Alberobello, but wanted to call in at Montescagliioso recommended by the lady from the Metaponto museum. There is not much to say about Montescaglioso except that it has a very pretty old town and, being set on a high hill, it has fantastic views over the surrounding countryside. We didn't see the former because there was nowhere to park and we were in danger of getting caught in the small lanes, so we opted for a tactical retreat. We did see some of the views as we descended the hill.
I always imagined the far south of Italy to be rocky, barren and mountainous but it continued to surprise. Yes there are some stony hillsides but our journey today was through quiet roads over green rolling hills. Derelict farmhouses, probably of subsistence farmers, littered the landscape and were now surrounded by huge fields of wheat.
One of the joys of travelling is finding the unexpected. I had been intrigued by many places on the map not marked as towns or villages but with a different symbol and all named as Masseria ..... We came across one of these as we drove, being first struck by the architecture of the small hamlet with one very large, arched building and houses nearby with a tower amongst them. When we stopped by them we discovered that the hamlet was Masseria Jesce dating to the 14th century and there was also an archaeological site dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. We would have liked to stop to investigate the village but it was down a dirt track and there was nowhere to park Henrietta on the asphalted road. Jane subsequently read that a Messeria was a cooperative commune often originally associated with a monastery – this obviously explained the large arched building that we had seen.
Although there was no mention of it our guidebooks or any other literature that we had seen, there was an archaeological site shown on our map that was on our route, so we decided to take a look. Monte Sunnace was obviously a major site with a fence surrounding it and two coaches parked in the very small car park. I squeezed Henrietta into a space and we went to investigate. The first thing that we found was that the gates were all locked and there was a sign in four languages explaining that you needed to obtain a ticket from the castle in the nearby large town. We didn't know the location of the castle and had no desire to drive around the town trying to find it and a parking place. As luck would have it, a school party were just leaving and the gates opened as they approached them. We decided to slip in and throw ourselves on the mercy of the custodian. It worked! In Italian, he explained that we needed a ticket but was happy for us to visit and get a ticket later, at least that is what we think he said. We spent a very pleasant hour wandering around the extensive site where there was much evidence of recent excavation. It had been occupied from Neolithic times but continuous occupation only started in the 9th century BC. It had been a Greek city but, after the Roman takeover, it declined in importance and was abandoned between the 1st century BC and 1st century AD. Very little happened to it after that, so the remains (almost entirely low level) are well preserved.
On then to the campsite at Alberobello ready for our visit to the Truli dwellings tomorrow.
Photos: An interesting house with plenty of space to catch the breeze during those very hot summers. The gates were chained and secured with a huge padlock and it was quite obvious that it had not been used for some time; Masseria Jesce – the monastery.

Wednesday 9th April 2008

Even though we are very interested in archaeology, we have nearly had enough of Greek / Roman sites and museums. However the museum and Metaponto was recommended and so we thought that we should pay it a quick visit. It was very good, although there were no English translations and its highlights were some exquisitely painted pottery and beautiful jewellery, including a gold earring depicting a tiny Eros(?) sat on a dolphin carved from garnet(?). We then called in at the nearby site to find that it was officially closed but a woman who worked at the museum was there taking photographs and allowed us in. She was very enthusiastic, talkative and helpful and passed on website and email details for us to obtain further information. The first thing that I noticed when we parked the motorhome was a viewing platform. I have been saying for many years that many archaeological sites should have these as it makes interpretation of the site so much easier. This one was a large, purpose-built erection and would have comfortably held a coach load of people allowing a guide to point out the layout of the site. Having said all of that, other sites would benefit much more from a viewing platform than this one did. They also had a good two large notice boards showing a plan of the site and, most useful (and unusual) interpretations of the likely appearance of the site at four different periods of its development.
We plotted a route to our next destination, Matera, via the Temple of Hera that was a couple of kilometres outside Metaponto. The temple has been reconstructed but looked very impressive in its position overlooking the valley of the river Bradano. Pythagoras was said to have lived in Metaponto and, after he died, his house and school were said to have been incorporated into the temple. However the information board, in rather extraordinary English, suggested that this was not possible as the temple had already fallen into disuse before Pythagoras's time.
Matera is famous for its Sassi dwellings. Man has lived in cave dwellings in this area from Prehistoric times right up to the 1950's. Many of the houses visible today date back to mediaeval times and the way of living changed little over those years. Houses consisted of a cave entrance leading into a living room / kitchen / bedroom (often combined) with a stable down steps further into the hillside and a cellar and store down a further fight of steps. In this way, the warmth generated by the animals provided heat for the house in the cold months. Families with many children lived in the houses with the children sharing their parent's bed. The houses were evacuated
in the mid 1950's due to the health problems associated with cramped living conditions, damp, poor sanitary arrangements and the close proximity of the animals. We visited a folk museum in one of the caves that gave an excellent illustration (with a commentary in English) of the way that the people lived. We were the only people in the museum until a large party of Japanese arrived – we left! We were also able to visit two Sassi churches and a convent that were intricately carved out of the hill and painted with frescoes.
We had planned to stay in a camperstop at the castle in Matera but found the car park closed. With difficulty, we established that the new camperstop was in the car park near the station in the centre of the town. Unfortunately, rather that the quiet surroundings of the castle area we were now going to be by the railway and with traffic close by. As it turned out, the railway ran under the car park out of hearing and the traffic noise was not too bad.
Photos: Beautifully painted Hydria from Metaponto depicting two women with Eros (2nd half of 4th century BC); Hera Temple at Metaponto with priestess (not Vestal Virgin) taking the traditional 3 hour Italian lunch break; Metera's Sassi dwellings including the Convent of Saint Anthony although the only way that you can spot it is by looking for the people in the middle of the picture; Sassi house with a view from the stable up towards the living quarters; A Lesser Kestrel (we think) – one of about 40 that were flying over the Sassi dwellings of Matera.

Tuesday 8th April 2008

The site was OK and was quiet overnight but the toilets and showers weren't great. However they were good value at €11, the cheapest in Italy by some margin.
By the end of today we would have had enough of archaeology, with visits planned to three sites that I had circled on the Michelin map. However this was quickly reduced to two after Jane pointed out that the first one that I had marked was an oil refinery and not an archaeological site. My excuse is that the symbols are similar in low light when I haven't got my glasses on! At least Jane realised before we started driving around the area trying to find it.
It was a cool overcast day and shortly before we arrived at the first site, it started to rain. We arrived at Sybaris to find two coaches of school children sheltering from the rain. One of the site personnel was asking us something about visiting the site and the museum but we couldn't understand what he was saying. Fortunately, a very helpful school teacher translated for us and when we said that we were going to visit the site, she said “In the rain????” in utter disbelief. She suggested that a visit to the museum, a little further down the road would be a better idea. We took her advice and directions and headed for the museum. It was very good, well presented and extremely quiet – we were the only people there. Having seen the museum we decided that we didn't need to see the site so, after lunch in the car park, we moved on to the next site.
Some 75 km further up the coast is Policoro and the site of Eraclea. We went to the museum first and saw excellent finds (without English explanations) from 7,000 BC, through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, the Lucanians, the Greeks and the Romans. Amongst the very impressive displays were pre-Greek graves from the 7th and 8th centuries BC (?). These were of women with incredibly rich grave goods – beautiful bronze headdresses and chest decorations, and huge amounts of jewellery – large bracelets, dress fixings, rings and much more. Then there was the Greek pottery – so many complete pieces including lots of beautifully painted ones. There was also industry on the site with a number of kilns and a number of pottery moulds were displayed. A large pot was filled with small votive (?) vessels – miniature pots of many different shapes and animals such as ducks. You could imagine they being displayed on a stall on the way to the temple with a sign saying “Only €1 each or three for €2.50”.
We then stopped to look at one small part of the very large site – the Acropolis. Many houses were located very close together on the ridge with a number of kilns in amongst them. Again these were well displayed with covers over the areas of special interest.
Then it was on to our camperstop at Lido di Metaponto. It was closed for maintenance but fortunately there was an open campsite very close so we drove in and chose our space.
Photos: Female figure from an 8th century BC tomb at Sybaris; One of the many kilns at Eraclea.

Monday 7th April 2008

When we woke, we threw back the curtains and looked out over the deep blue sea with ships in the distance and the odd small fishing boat and yacht ailing by.
Just north of the campsite is yet another Greek / Roman site at Caulonia. Being a Monday, when most sites are closed, we were not expecting to be able to see it but it is spread over a large area and some areas had been left open for public access, complete with English information boards. It was interesting to note that considerable remains had been found on the seabed whereas on the west coast (e.g. Paestum and Velia) the coast had receded from the sites. This suggests that this part of Italy is tilting, probably due to the volcanic activity in the area around Stromboli. Anyone with information on this, please post a comment at the bottom of this posting.
We then headed for Capo Colonna, a minor diversion from the route and recommended by the Fodors guide for its wild flowers in April and May. Once on the peninsular we started passing forests of wild fennel with huge flowered stems reaching to over five feet in height. We followed the ancient Greek Sacred Road to the cape where a single column marks the Temple of Hera that once stood with sea on three sides and with the sun shining brightly, we could understand why they had built it there. The Temple was complete until the 16th century when it and the complex of buildings around it were demolished in order to build the bishop's palace cathedral, castle and city walls of nearby Crotone. The wild flowers were indeed pretty although not as impressive as those on the site at Caulonia.
On then to the next campsite at Cariati Marina. This took some finding! There were no signs to the campsite as we approached the town (and no directions in the ACSI guide) but Jane spotted a sign to something else with a similar name. After finding nothing else further into the town we turned back and took that road. There was a sign visible in that direction but we soon came to junctions without any more signs. Miles out of Cariati Marina on a minor road, we gave up and were looking for somewhere to turn around when we saw a large star on a pole in the distance – it was the site!
Photos: Wild flowers on the site at Caulonia; More wild flowers and the single column at Colonna.

Sunday 6th April 2008

For the fifth day we had thunder and lightening. It started at about 06:00 but the climax was at about 09:30 when the rain came down like a waterfall. This then changed to hail with lumps of ice half a centimetre in diameter. The noise on the roof was horrendous, conversation was impossible and I was really concerned that the hail would damage the plastic windows in the roof. The hail went on for a few minutes before it turned back to rain. Once the rain stopped, we prepared to leave but a German couple who were walking back to their motorhome told us that the road outside the campsite was flooded and it was impassable. We went to take a look. Just above the campsite there are some steps that lead up to the town perched on the rock but we had already been told that these had been washed away together with part of the cliff in the Winter rains. They had started replacing the steps but they had left a large drainage pipe open at the top of the cliff. This was now disgorging a huge volume of water down the cliff on to the road below and all of this water was then running down the side road and past the campsite entrance. After half an hour the flow of water had subsided and we were able to leave, carefully negotiating a small hole in the road that had been widened and deepened by the flood water. Fortunately , that was the last of the rain that we had that day.
We had a choice of two routes that would take us across the top of the toes of the boot of Italy. The first and closest was the more major road and would have been the quicker route. The second route went over the mountains and through a pass and was marked in green on the Michelin map – that was the one for us! The first part of the journey was again by the sea but we soon turned inland and started to climb. The views were good but not spectacular and we stopped for lunch near the top of the pass in a small lay-by. As I had predicted, less than half a mile further on, there was a purpose-built covered picnic area with a large car park – this is always the way when you have been looking for somewhere to stop and finally compromised on somewhere that is not ideal. Once we started to descend, the views just got better and better. The mountains fell away steeply on both sides to lower hills along the coast. Even though it was a little misty at this point, the views were lovely but, as is often the case with Italian mountain roads, there was nowhere to stop to admire the view so I had to content myself with glimpses between the hairpin bends. I was only able to take one photograph and that was in one of the mistier sections, so you will have to use your imagination for the views.
Once down at the coast, we headed for a archaeological site near Locri. This was another huge Greek / Roman site of which only a small part had been excavated and even less was on display to the public. We had to content ourselves with some wall, a gate, the remains of two temples and an intriguing sacred area, all of which had excellent information boards in English. The museum was also very interesting although it lacked English explanations. On then to our campsite just a few miles up the road at Marina di Caulonia. We chose a spot well away from the coastal railway (again) and right next to the sea.
Photos: The hail lying on the campsite whilst, out of view, a torrent runs past the entrance; A rather hazy view from the S111 on the descent to Locri whilst crossing the top of the toes of the boot of Italy.

Saturday 5th April 2008

We woke up today to find that Stromboli had disappeared. We thought that it might have sunk but decided that, being camped at sea level, we would have been obliterated by the resulting tsunami. This reminded us of a similar situation when we were last on the Greek island of Santorini, thought to be one of the possible locations for Atlantis. In the description of Atlantis it is mentioned that islands appear and disappear. This was certainly the case on Santorini. There are a number of islands quite close to Santorini and one day they would be so clear that you felt that you could reach out and touch them. The next day, they simply weren't there and this was not because there was a bank of fog in the way. There was obviously some haze obscuring them but you couldn't detect it. If you had seen that view for the first time, you would swear that there were no islands there. It was like that with Stromboli today – we knew exactly where it should be but staring really hard, we could not discern any sign of it. As Jane would say “very spookie!”. It made us realise how difficult ancient sea navigation must have been, they could have sailed within a few miles of an island and simply not seen it. And then there were the storms and sudden squalls like those caused by the electrical storms that we had again last evening.
Late morning we walked up to the town and wandered aimlessly around it. The town is in a wonderful position and has some really interesting buildings but they are sadly neglected. Southern Italy is very poor and reports of organised crime do not encourage businesses to invest or people to move to the area. Previously beautiful houses have fallen into decay and people seem to take little pride in the appearance of their houses or their towns. This does not only apply to the very southern part of Italy, in Rome, Pompeii and Erculano (Herculaneum) the vandalism was terrible. Whole Metro trains were absolutely covered, inside and out, in graffiti to the point that you couldn't see out of the windows. Every unmanned Metro station was covered and even the manned ones were not spared. In streets and especially alleyways buildings were sprayed even in some cases private houses. And the rubbish is strewn everywhere with fly-tipping evident whenever you look over walls or in derelict buildings (of which there are many). Naples, with its much reported rubbish collection crisis was a total disaster area when we came through the suburbs. Piles of uncollected rubbish lay everywhere and there was a great deal of evidence of fires where desperate people had burned the piles rather than attract a plague of rats. It is such a shame to see such an intrinsically beautiful country looking so scruffy. End of rant!
Despite all of that, we really like Tropea and we have never seen such a concentration of very reasonably priced restaurants and pizzerias. We had pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven at lunchtime and they were excellent. The lady in the Tourist Information Office was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and directed us to a local Internet point, so we were able to get the blog and emails up to date. We are now heading off into more rural areas so Internet access may be a little more difficult for a few days.
Photos: The campsite at Tropea with the former island of Isola behind. The magnificent building on Isola is actually in a very poor state of repair; An example of Tropea faded elegance. This house with its internal courtyard, double staircases and covered porticoes (now topped with a corrugated iron roof) must have been beautiful in the past. The outside of the building was in a poor state although it was still in use as a number of private homes.