RUINS, THE SASSI, AND RIVERS OF RAIN --- WHAT A CHANGE OF SCENERY?-- DAY 16

Woke up to Savage going for a run?  What’s up with that?  At least it was halfway cool out in the morning. 

:( We have to leave today ..... Andrea had a great fruit salad this morning.  We ate out on the courtyard beside the pool.  Savage was telling me about his skydiving trip (how cool is that) -- he paid good money to jump out of a working airplane.  (Yes, that is awesome, in a weird adventurous way.)  He loves to surf and told me the thrill of that too.  I would so love to try that-- gliding on water.  It is amazing all of the things he has done and seen in his life. He is much more daring than I -- and I am impressed and jealous, as I wish I were more daring.  

We didn’t get off as early as we wanted, but I keep repeating his mantra - we are on vacation.  He let me get the car out of the garage... WTH was he thinking?  It took me at least 4 tries to maneuver it out of the tight spot.  (All I could think of was the George Clooney movie where he kept saying “We are in a tight spot”.) 

When we got to Naples somehow I got us on the wrong road and ended up on another toll road -- this is getting to be a bad trend on my part.  But we finally found the correct way to Herculaneum (called Ercolano there).  Herculaneum is the smaller version of Pompeii.  I have wanted to see Pompeii since I was small, but as it was sweltering outside (even at 10:45 a.m.) and Pompeii is SO massive we decided the smart move would be a smaller area to explore.  Also Herculaneum was supposed to be spectacular. 

The ruins are located in the middle of a residential area a short distance from the shore.  This area was covered in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted.  I read it was a different type of town than Pompeii -- a little more like Beverly Hills not Vegas.

When we arrived the parking lot was clearly marked and we ended up in a parking garage (ah, when we come back, our car will be cool..... a treat in Italy).  At the top of the stairs it looked a little shady, they had a few souvenir booths and a couple of stands selling ice cream -- Magnum bars.  

Inside we bought our tickets, and they had a tour starting soon but it was going to be 10 euros and the guide was quite pushy.  We decided against it, as we could read the map and very wordy guide and see the place at our own pace (probably a heck of a lot quicker than they would be going -- we don’t faff about in places especially when it is hot). 

Took some photos on the way down -- it was like looking into an open excavation site -- it is still being excavated in places.  There is a wall and a moat type ditch area around it.  There was a small gift shop at the entrance (shocker) and a bridge to get to the actual ruins.  

Thankfully they had given us a map with details about the rooms/buildings we would be seeing.  They had corresponding numbers on the doors.  I had brought my hand fan with me too -- what a godsend.  

When we got to one that looked interesting I would read aloud what we were looking at.     The streets/lanes were narrow and cobblestoned with little mini drainage ditches beside them.  In some areas there were planks/walkways to get the visitors from the lane into the building. 

We saw the tavern, with big holes in the counters.  In the women’s bathhouse, there was a room where they had little shelves to hold things.  The mosaic floors were amazing.  Ash hit here and preserved the area.  

Fortunately, there were not many tourists here and there were some shady areas.  I liked the wooden house and the buildings with the wall mosaics.  They had a few open water troughs in the lanes.  You could tell which buildings the wealthier folks lived in -- even after a natural disaster and 1000’s of years.  The men’s bathhouse was much larger than the women’s.   Also they had open areas where the conservation of the area was very visible. 

I really enjoyed my visit here -- while wandering around the streets you could almost feel the ghosts of people with you.  It was as if the whole town was a ghost town.  I visualized people in togas running around handling their daily business, going to the market, going to work (I guess that would have only been the slaves), or going to a friend's house to visit.  It was very eerie to imagine what it would have been like the day the volcano erupted and the aftermath.  What if you had been away from town and traveled inland to return to an ash covered city or if you had been out fishing or traveling on the water and seen the eruption from a distance? 

As you can tell the doorways were very low.

just spooky even in the daylight

this floor symbol really freaked me out

awesome relief -- how can an artist create such work?

interesting

This used to be a town right on the water, but with the passage of time -- the shore got further away and the new town surrounded the old town.  As it was about noontime, it got drenchingly hot and suffocating outside and we decided to hit the road to Matera.  As we were leaving -- Magnum bars for the road.  Yummy.

On the road again, I love being on the road.  Savage, not so much.  We had a three hour drive, could he survive?  We stopped about half way, at a gas station to grab something to eat.  That is one of the wonders of Italy -- no American type fast food restaurants on the side of the road, instead, at their gas stations you can get a panini sandwich and sit at an outside table and watch the traffic go by.  Sometimes they have strange restaurant type places where you order and pay at the counter and take your food to a small table.  (And then get your cafe latte at the counter and drink it at the counter - not normally at a table.)  

While there and getting gas we saw a very tired trucker -- gives new meaning to the phrase truck stop. 

The countryside outside Salerno was amazingly beautiful -- very much like Colorado.  There were rolling hills with farms.  Yellows and greens with a rain storm coming in.  Maybe it would cool everything off?  Also finally hit upon a singer that Savage liked other than Bon Jovi.  I didn’t ever put Zachary Richard in the CD player as I didn’t think he would like his music.  But at this point I didn’t care anymore.  Surprisingly, the Kiwi liked it.  He said it reminded him of Tracy Chapman. Weird, he likes a coonass but doesn’t like Elvis? 

In Matera, we had made reservations in a cave -- the Hotel in Pietra.  Matera is a cave city in southern Italy.  It is where they filmed Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, using it as Jerusalem.   They call the cave area - the Sassi.

Let’s just say that the iPhone GPS was totally useless in this little town.  The Sassi was a maze of one way, very narrow streets that wound into the cave area.  Savage found a parking place and I found the correct staircase up, he stayed with the car.  There were a few signs but it was very confusing.  

Luckily, I had enough energy to make it up the stairs (how could I drag a bag up here).  When I got to the hotel, they had two available rooms -- I checked them out but would let him pick as this was his “birthday” time.  Tomorrow is his birthday and as he is persnickety about the rooms -- he could pick. 

The nice hostess checked me in and gave me a map of the town and I went back to the car.  We drove around to the parking garage -- there was no parking in the Sassi. 

In the parking garage, I got out an overnight bag (yeah for me again). And being stubborn, I drug it up three flights of stairs.  I will admit it, Sweet Savage did offer to help  and at the top just grabbed it away from me.  Chivalrous to the end, right Kiwi?  

Then we wandered through the Piazza Vittorio Venetto and the streets (this parking garage was not close) to the Sassi area and found an entrance at the top (so we didn’t have to go UP stairs to our hotel -- but down).  While doing this we saw part of the “regular” town of Matera.  This definitely was not a tourist hot spot.  I REALLY liked it so far and I think it is one of the best places we went on this road trip.  I fell in love with Croatia and would love to come back to Sorrento -- but Matera tops it all.  It was like finding a treasure that no one else knew about.  I doubt our friend, Helen, had even been here. 

At the hotel, I camped out on the sofas in the lobby and let Savage explore and decide.  I loved his choice -- we had a great view of the Sassi.  Our bathroom was fantastic --- two huge bucket sinks, a massive tub (it would take an hour to fill it up), and a hole in the wall as the shower -- wicked.  Sweet alcove that had a fridge and a chaise lounge.  He couldn’t get down the stairs from the alcove without ducking -- he is too tall. Heck, I am almost too tall to get up the stairs.  Good on ya Kiwi. 

I got refreshed with a shower in the wicked shower and relaxed a bit.   Got dressed for dinner and out again into the maze of streets we went.  In search of a restaurant.... tt was overcast when we hit the main area -- rain???  

There was a race going on the corso -- watched it for awhile and saw a great purse siting.  

We wandered and wandered looking for a restaurant. Most everything in town was closed because it was Sunday. Finally found a great one -- Il Cantucci, but they didn’t open until 8:00 -- WTH?  There were only about 6 or 7 tables.  Some of the other patrons had brought their dog -- a cute King Charles Spaniel. Other sets of people from our hotel showed up at this restaurant too.   We had a weird, but delicious, lamb entree in a very strange dish.  Also had great ravioli, pork with ham on top and the best part -- a chocolate souffle :).  Food was great, conversation was great, people watching was great and when we left it was pouring buckets of rain -- awesome -- raining and cooling the place off. 

We walked very quickly back through the rain.  I had to take off my flip flops (so I didn’t slip) and hung onto Savage for dear life.  I knew I was going to bust it again,  I couldn't fall and hurt myself the last part of the trip.  Thankfully I didn’t.  The rain was so bad it made rivers out of the slick cobblestone lanes.  

Our room was very comfortable, but they had a weird set up with the A/C being controlled by a computer at the front desk.  I went down in my pjs to beg them to make it cool in our room.  Great view!!!