Today’s ride was another hot one but much shorter (45km) and only a bit of climbing up into Matera.
Before leaving Gravina we rode over to the ancient Roman bridge. There were also remnants of an ancient village on one side. Unfortunately there is some graffiti on it. We have noticed that things aren’t always well maintained in this part of Italy. It’s a poorer region.
Next we rode to Altamura. Not too much to see see there, typical puglian city, but famous for its bread, which is rustic looking and made in large oddly shaped loafs but surprisingly is a white bread. It’s good but not exactly notable. There is a lot of wheat grown around here so they are making good use of it. The countryside looks somewhat like Saskatchewan with all the wheat and rolling hills.
We had a bit of time to explore Matera which has recently become famous for its “sassi” or stone houses, actually cave homes, that have been in use for 8000-9000 years. They are the oldest known dwellings that are still in use. The sassi are partly natural cave and partly excavated by people. The Matera Sassi became a UNESCO world heritage sight recently so tourism has grown tremendously in a short period of time. In the 1950’s the sassi were evacuated of it’s inhabitants due to disease and unhygienic conditions but now they are starting to be redeveloped into new homes and businesses. We were able to see what a typical cave home would have been like and how they had cisterns to collect water and snow. This is a fascinating place.
Tara on the Roman bridge before heading out of Gravina in Puglia
Puglia supplies most of the wheat for pasta in Italy (that's a lot)
Rob, at lunch in Altamura, chatting with a couple of guys who were fascinated by our mode of travel
Matera and some of the "sassi", houses excavated and then built upon
There is a festa every night it seems. The streets are packed and it's 10:30 in the evening.
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