As we continued our slow way across Apulia we came across the Tulli. These are houses built in the 16 th century, with stone rooves, with distinctive peaks. There are lots of old preserved ones and also lots of modern ones. The shape seemed to have caught the imaginations of the modern inhabitants who all seem to have garages or part of the house built in this style!
Looking for a place to park for the night, we went down some beautiful stone walled laneways. There was very little opportunity to get off the roadway and we were getting a little frustrated when we saw a WWF (World Wildlife Fund) sign. So we took that track hoping to find some bushland to park in. But we found a locked gate!
So knowing that there would be no passing traffic we pulled over and slept. In the morning there WAS a passing vehicle! It belonged to Serge, who volunteers for WWF! He invited us to join him and a school group for a walk in the WWF area! The property was donated to WWF by a group of hippie commune Ghandi followers, who were disbanding and had no further use for the property. It has a number of Trullies, and some lovely bushland. We enjoyed our walk with the group.
6 May 2016
Our next stop was Matera. This city was perhaps the most surprising of our trip so far. The feature of Matera is the sassi, cave dwellings carved into the cliff sides. Settlement here had already occurred in Neolithic and oaleolithic times! These dwellings housed thousands of people in squalid conditions, with no sewerage or clean water supplies until the 1950s.
The infant mortality rate was about 50%, commonly dying from dysentery. Animals were kept inside with the families, who had an average of 6 children.
These photos are reconstructions of one of the caves.
The Sassi of Matera became known as "the shame of Italy" and became a political,issue. In the 1950s they were forcibly evacuated. The inhabitants were relocated to nearby towns and given parcels of land to farm. However these land parcels were too small and the scheme was not successful. Many of the families emigrated (perhaps to Australia?)
Later the sassi were renovated and improved and are now occupied by more wealthy inhabitants. Many have been made into resturaunts and hotels. The area has become quite a tourist attraction.
This is a sassi transformed into an up market resturaunt ("Stone") with glass floors, and rough carved walls and ceilings.
The town is really quite lovely and full of interest. The sassi have facades built of tuffi stone, and the inside is carved into the Rock. The roof of one is the floor of the one above.
We camped at a camp ground which is attached to a hotel and go-kart track. Our host was Jan -Fraco, who behaved more like a friend than a sales-man. He looked after us very well and we certainly recommend his camping ground.
On the day we were there a contingent of Russian business men came into town, 8 helicopter loads of them! They landed on Jan-Fraco's go-kart track. There were 6 limousines lined up waiting for them with motors running. It was a very slick arrival and departure.
Jan -Franco has also been involved with a number of film productions. Matera is very photogenic and has been used as location for a string of films such as Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ", and recently "Wonder Woman".
As we were leaving we met a neighbour of Jan-Franco. This gentleman did not speak any English but presented us with a bag of his home grown fava beans. He showed us how to eat them straight from the pod -green! They are sweet, a lot like sweet peas. Some people squeeze them out of the inner skin, and others eat them skin and all. Delicious!
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