Matera, Italy: Exploring caves in the 2019 European Capital of Culture | Italy Days 4 &5

It's just really really cool and I'm absolutely loving it so far. Yeah, me too. It's just cool. It's one of those places where we're like we can't stop smiling again. For the last nine to ten hours we've been traveling from Venice, Italy down to Matera, Italy. We took a boat, two trains, and one bus to get here. It was quite the adventure and it's safe to say our first impression is very impressed. This is so cool. Oh look. Whoa. Oh my gosh. It's like it's like we just stepped into another world. I'm falling. I'm so excited. Wow. So you might be wondering where the heck is Matera. Matera is located on the arch of the boot of Italy. And what's really cool about Matera is one of the longest continuously inhabited cities in the whole world and it's actually comprised of two different areas. The new area and the old area. So the old area is made up of all these cave dwellings and it's just really really cool looking in here. And when you as soon as you walk out of the old area it's like a totally different place. It's just it's crazy the contrast between the two. But in the 50s they basically like evacuated everyone out of the old area due to unsafe conditions. But now people are allowed in. There's restaurants, shops, churches, airbnbs, all that fun stuff. Something else that's really cool about Matera is that it's one of two European culture capitals for 2019. It's sharing the title of a city in Bulgaria. So it's definitely getting a lot more like press and hype but it's still relatively undiscovered and that's kind of why we chose to come here. We really wanted to go to like one city while we were here that we don't know anyone that's actually been to it. And I don't remember how we found out about Matera. I don't either. I think it was maybe like a YouTube video. We're like that place looks cool let's go. We'll give you the grand tour of the whole city tomorrow but first we want to show you this awesome airbnb. It's awesome! Welcome to my cave. So we are staying in one of the caves in Matera and I am just beyond excited. I think this is the coolest airbnb we've ever stayed in. So when you first walk in it's like this outdoor indoor area with this cute little table that we're for sure gonna eat breakfast at tomorrow and drink our coffee. There's some other seating. It's just it's just so cool. So this is the main area when you first walk in and the first thing you notice is the ceilings are just I don't know they just look like they're carved out and it's just really cool. So come on into the kitchen. Check out these cabins. Those are cool. We got a full stove here but my favorite piece espresso machine. We're doing shots of espresso. So that's the quick little tour. Don't worry we do have a bathroom but we figured the other spots were a little bit more exciting to show. We're gonna do some shots of espresso, get a little bit more awake because it's been a long day and then we're gonna go venture out into town and find something for dinner. So for dinner we are going to 440 which is basically just like a grab-and-go sandwich spa but it looks really good. It has really good reviews. One thing to note about Matera is a lot of things seem to be closed on Wednesdays. I don't know why Wednesdays but this place is closed on Wednesday which is tomorrow so tonight's our only chance to go try it so we're hoping they open soon because we just went by and they were not open and I thought they would be and it says their hours have changed so we're gonna try again in a few minutes and if not I guess we'll find a plan B. It's not open. We don't know why. Bummer. Monday to Sunday closed Wednesday. Today is Tuesday. Matera I'm loving you so far but I'm not loving that all the restaurants are closed when they're supposed to be open. We just tried to go to a restaurant that our Airbnb host recommended. It says they're open and they're not. I don't know if it's like Matera time kind of like some places have like island time and they just choose to not be open. I'm really hungry. It's two strikes. We found one. So for dinner we came to Dacero which was a recommendation from our Airbnb host and so we got a couple pizzas. It's a pizza place and I thought I was ordering a pizza but it looks like it's kind of a calzone kind of situation but I'm excited for it but it was a surprise. And then Katherine got like a more normal looking pizza but man looks delicious. So surprise number two with that what I thought was a pizza didn't have any pizza sauce in it. It was just like a couple different cheeses which were really good and also some ham. It was it was really good. The bread was like soft and chewy and the bread was delicious and it was kind of just I don't know like a panini kind of like style like just melted cheese and meat and bread. It was really really good. It was like a super duper hot pocket. And my pizza was awesome and I shared with Adam so he could get his pizza fix. Sharing is caring. So yeah this place was delicious and it was actually I feel like pretty relatively cheap. We hear that the more south you go in Italy it gets cheaper. I don't know if that's true or not. That's what a friend told us so definitely I think cheaper than what we probably would have gotten up north. Most of the pizzas here were under 10 euros. Yeah they're like 9 euros 8.50 so I think it's a pretty good deal. Yeah so this place was great. It was a great plan C. Yeah. Good morning from Matera. We kicked off this morning with a nice little breakfast on our patio here. And we're about to go meet up with a local named Silvio who's going to take us on a tour today and we're so excited about it. We hardly ever go on tours. We're doing a lot on this trip but we're especially excited for this one because we have a local just taking us around and maybe one other couple to be determined. But we're going to this area called Mergia. I'm not totally sure how to say it but it's basically the area on the other side of the ravine from the old city which is also called the Sassi. And so there's a river that kind of runs through this ravine. You used to be able to cross it via a bridge but the bridge is no longer there. So we're having Silvio take us over to this park and then walk us around and tell us about some of the cool history there including these things called rock churches that only the locals have keys to. So we're really excited. This is our tour guide for the day Silvio. Good morning. He's been living in this area your entire life. Yes. So he's taking us around today. So we are at Mergia, Parco della Mergia. He sounds so much better than I do. So we're at the first rock church in this park and there are a bunch of rock churches like 150. Yeah about 155. So he gets special keys to access them because he's a local. So we're in the first one and we're gonna go check it out. Wow this is so cool. Matera at the moment is 400 meters above sea level and when this was below sea level the sea excavated some natural caves. So some of these natural caves were used already in the Stone Age. They were using the original caves but also excavating new caves. Okay. So that's important. So some of the some of the caves existed from being under the sea. Yes. And then they created some. Yes. Wonder Woman. Yeah we've seen that right. Was filmed here? Yes part of it was filmed here. What? Amazon riding on horses. The small Wonder Woman playing on steps on on levels that was on the other side in the Sassi on the other side of the canyon. Okay I'm for sure watching that movie. Many settlements independent from one another then growing together then excavating the steps the infrastructures the small roads then the city got an important shape and then developed in this. Okay so you're saying that they built around the caves like for example like when we look at our Airbnb it doesn't look like a cave but then we open the door and then it looks like. Yeah. Okay that's why. So like the whole the whole thing looked like this bottom half. This was a sort of altar. Oh wow you can see the space really well. And Matera in the past was considered as the Italian national shame because of the living conditions in the Sassi. After the second world war the government decided to relocate the people from the Sassi into new social homes built out of the city center. So the past was not so good we still consider the past we keep the traditions we are proud of our past but now we must look at the future. So the future is coming. In 1952 Matera was the Italian national shame. So another compliment. What a turnaround. Then 41 years later 1993 UNESCO world heritage. In 2019 European So that tour was awesome right? It was so cool it was one of the like best like activities that we've done so far this trip I think. Yeah it was so fun to have that like kind of one-on-one knowledge and you could bounce questions off of him we normally don't do stuff like that so that was a great experience so if you come here and you want to do a tour check Silvio out highly recommended we'll link all the information for him down below he also does tours for beyond just that area he can take you through like the old city he can take you other places too yeah in the area yeah yeah he's super knowledgeable like you said we loved him so thank you very much Silvio you were the best yeah I normally don't like absorb historical information very well that's why we don't go to museums a ton and I feel like I learned so much that I'll actually remember it so it was very cool to see things hear the stories and yeah and just walk around and see all the views too it was great but we've walked a lot today we are very hungry so we're gonna go find some lunch now so for lunch we came to this place called Il Rusticone it's kind of a quick service they have some stuff already made but then they can make you they have a menu of things that you can order uh but we got these things called Puccia and so what it is is they take a pizza crust like they normally make and then they'll take it out of the oven kind of cut it in half and then they'll put all kinds of ingredients in there so we got two different kinds uh so this one has cheese and Coppa which is the meat and then some lettuce and it looks like there's some kind of oh that's probably more cheese I think and this one's very similar different style meat this is a spicy salami and that's the Coppa and then so as we've been walking around all through Italy really we've been seeing this uh watermelon it just looks like so much more red than we see at home so we finally grabbed us a cup of the watermelon looks delicious that is so good I love the crispiness of it yeah me too the crunch is delicious like a pizza sandwich so crispy yeah this is so good it's really refreshing too because it's getting really hot out right now delicious lunch so good and the best part is it really wasn't expensive at all no we each got like a full one but you could just get like one little slice so there's four slices per each thing you could get one little slice for like two something yeah 250 I think or you get two for four something and that's a really cheap lunch whether you're in US dollars or euros so yeah I love that place the girl that took our order was so friendly too yeah very nice very helpful I think she was probably like the nicest like the best service we've had so far so yeah highly recommend that place yeah it was quick we were there 20 minutes and yeah it was really really tasty yeah and now we're just gonna spend the rest of the day wandering around and I'm really excited about it because normally we plan our trips where it's like bam bam bam just activities back to back we never have time to just kind of like wander and see what we find and that's kind of what we want to shift our travel style to more it's just hard when you only have like a certain amount of time in each place but there's not like a ton to do here the sense of like famous landmarks so we had our tour this morning and then we just want to spend the rest of day kind of seeing what we find so it's gonna be pretty awesome I think we're gonna find a lot because there's just so much to explore just and we'll have the time to be able to like appreciate all the little details that there are here yeah and what I can't put my finger on like what Matera reminds me of it doesn't feel like Adam's probably like I've heard I've said this like a thousand times and I'm like I just don't know how to describe this place I don't I just don't know how to describe it it's just so old and beautiful and I don't know it doesn't feel like any other part of Italy I've ever seen or any place I've ever really seen they filmed a lot of movies here and I think it kind of has like middle eastern vibes in a way in the in the old city they film Passion of the Christ here so I don't know it's just really really cool and I'm absolutely loving it so far me too it's it's just cool it's one of those places where we like we can't stop smiling again one thing I did want to mention though is so we took a really long journey here from Venice like with trains and buses and whatnot depending on where you're coming from they do have an airport in like the neighboring larger town I think it's like Bari yeah so you can fly into Bari and then take a train I'm sorry a bus from there to here so depending on where you're kind of coming from first there are other options besides doing a 10-hour travel day like we did but we really liked it because it gave us a day to relax yeah yeah it was enjoyable the ride was nice but Silvio our guide he said that that's what the locals do is they fly the plane down here it's only an hour trip he said yeah so next time I guess so it is not a day in Italy without some gelato gelato time so we went to a place called hold on I Vizi Degli Angeli I don't know if that's right I'll write the name down below but it's apparently one of the best gelato place in Matera we both got the big size we each got three flavors oops I got pistachio coffee and then they're cookies and cream which is probably not super authentic to Italy but it looks delicious I got chocolate stracciatella and like a milk and berry one it's very good I went with the gelato pro tip to avoid the drippage that uh I wasted the other day I got it in a cup so I can get every little last drop of it then you don't get a crunchy cone I know I'm missing the best parts I'm missing the comb but it's okay it's really good so we've been walking around all day long and we wanted to come back to the Airbnb recharge the batteries freshen up a little bit before dinner and we were about to step out the door and it was raining and hailing and it was lightning fat raindrops and some hail going on hail no hail no yeah so the weather forecast today somewhere in the whole trip has been like it's going to storm and then it doesn't so we've gotten really lucky that the like weather has held out really well for us so it was supposed to storm much earlier in the day and it didn't which was great and yeah it started hailing we were like what's that really loud noise and it was hail hitting our patio yeah at first I was like somebody throwing rocks down here because it's open air but yeah so our plan was to go eat outside for dinner but I don't think that's going to happen it doesn't seem that bad right now but I don't think it's like eat outside weather so it might be tricky yeah so we're still not really sure where we're going to go to dinner there's a lot of options they're all kind of very similar like a lot of Italian cuisine and stuff so we can't we can't make up our minds which one we want to go to so we're going to go walk around and just see what we find so one really good thing about this rain is that it's cooled down the temperatures a lot because earlier this morning it was really cloudy and it felt great and it was really windy too then the sun popped out and it got super hot because you're kind of just walking out in the open there's not a ton of shade not a ton of trees around so you get toasty pretty fast Silvio told us that the best time to come to Matera is in the spring he said there's a lot more like flowers in bloom and it's a lot cooler so if you have the flexibility to come whenever you want definitely check it out in the spring summer's not bad at all it's just you know after walking around Venice and being super hot there and then being hot here it kind of just makes you tired after a while so we had to take a little bit of a break we ended up coming to dinner at a place right like literally steps from our Airbnb it's La Grada Ne Sassi I believe is what it's called and it has pretty good reviews and the food looked delicious online we've gotten two pastas so far one is like a cream-based pasta with pistachio and mushrooms and then this one has crushed peppers which we've been seeing everywhere so I'm assuming it's kind of a local thing they both look delicious we also got steak that's coming a little bit for our main course we got a beautiful steak with mushrooms all over it and a side of potatoes here they'll smell perfect so what's cool about this steak is they use only cows that are from only in this region so it's extra local and it looks amazing buon appetito nice and soft and juicy that dinner was delicious we almost went back to the place we had for lunch just to keep it cheap and it was really good but I'm glad we decided to branch out a little bit yeah I was really craving some pasta and that was delicious and I feel like for getting two pastas and a steak the price was pretty reasonable yeah so it was a good amount of food I mean you know we like to eat but I think and I'm feeling pretty satisfied yeah I'm happy so we've been wanting to walk around at night just to kind of see the town with like the lights on and everything so we're gonna kind of go walk around walk off dinner and just see where it takes us so unfortunately that's the end of our time here in Matera I really enjoyed walking around here seeing like the new city the really old city and the really really old city the Murcia that we had the tour of today it was it's just something completely different than I've never seen before oh my gosh I loved it so much the whole day I kept telling Adam like I just love it here I just love it here it's just why we wanted to come to Italy like was to experience new cultures and this just felt like such a small town like not very touristy at all we did see we could probably count the number of people from the U.S. we saw on one hand like groups of people we saw maybe like three groups total so it just was really really cool to be in a place that's not that discovered yet by Americans at least so it is getting more popular here we almost don't even want to like tell people how awesome it is because we don't want to like get this place like overwhelmed with tourists but it's just a really really special place and just walking around it just felt like a whole other world and like we said earlier we can't describe like what it feels like I can't put my finger on it it's so different so different but it was just so much fun to walk around and you know we're not one to like just walk around we kind of get bored usually but I today I was just like this is so cool this is so cool every corner you come around there's there's something to take a photo of like you just want to like bam bam bam yeah everywhere it's just awesome so we highly recommend coming to Matera if you're going to be in Italy try to you know venture out of some of the bigger cities and even if it's not Matera go to a small town that you don't really know much about even just for a day because it's it really gives you like a true glimpse of like how locals here live and it's just really really fun so I'm very sad to leave but I'm really hopeful we'll come back because there's so many cool areas right around here too and there's like a whole other coast like everyone else goes to these other parts of the coast but there's a whole other area that I just feel like isn't that discovered by people in the U.S. yet so we definitely want to come back and explore more of these smaller areas and speaking of the coast we are going tomorrow and I'm very excited for that too Positano on deck yeah so tomorrow morning we're leaving here very very early and taking a bus to the coast and a ferry and it's going to be really awesome and we're going to just relax for the next couple days there and you know after a kind of crazy couple days at the beginning of the trip we're trying to slow things down a bit before the second half of our trip which will be pretty pretty busy gonna get crazy yeah so we're gonna go to sleep we will see you in the morning the inhabited areas in the whole world um and so I thought it was bird poop but it was water that scared me so bad oh god that's funny I'm sorry I was trying so hard to just like let it go welcome to my cave welcome that was funny rain those it's cooled down the temperature slipped on the rock these rocks are slick these rocks that you walk on like all the rocks that are just on the ground here are so slick yeah even when it's dry you're almost like I'm kind of scared to walk on this now when it's wet