Travels thru Life: 5/1: Transfer to Trani by Way of Matera

We left early today because it is Italy's Labor Day and crowds at our first stop were anticipated. We arrived in Matera around 10am and set off on our tour. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site that has been occupied for the last 35,000 years. Inhabitants used the existing caves for homes and eventually build housing faces in front of the caves. As we have heard before South Italy was largely regarded as a worthless place with lazy people by the ruling parties in the north and little was done to improve life in the south.

The cave dwellers lived until the 1960s much like their very early ancestors did without electricity, running water, or sewer systems. Because of the steep rocky terrain, livestock was kept in the same dwelling space, which helped to heat it. in the 1950s, this situation became general knowledge and a law was passed to provide other homes and force people out of the caves, but the community resisted because of the close personal interactions they had built up in the compressed space and moving usually meant losing these important connections.

In the meantime, Matera beccame a bustling village above the cave valley. After a brief tour of the upper area, we walked down into the cave valley.

Another purgatory church, dedicated
to help people progress to heaven

The images on the door show that even
in death, the wealthy had preference.
The top row of skulls have a crown or
a bishop's mitre.

Temporary art work: an olive tree
where people are part of the growth.

The Drop below was created by a former Kamikazi pilot, Kenjiro Azuma. The aftermath of WWII led him to turn to art as a reason to live. He came to Italy to study in 1956.

Above and below: The Drop

From here,we started descending. The background shows original caves. The normal-looking homes with the streets and steps are facades to the caves behind them. We visited a cave home that had an English audio tour to explain what everything was.

Central water source

The top of the roof sloped to better capture water and
guide it to an individual cistern

Each door is a different family and the courtyard was for
all. There were many children, half of whom did not make
it to age 3 because of the appalling sanitary conditions.

Church in the rock

Access to the cistern from inside

Plate fixed using the sail-shaped tool on the wall below.

Brazier used to help heat the room

Sleeping for kids and storage

The matrimonial bed with a stable behind it

From here on in, everything is part of the original cave

The kitchen area, with its limestone blocks was the part
of the building that extended out from the cave.

Typical engagement present: the more flowers represents
the greater wealth of the suitor.

Lots of buildings like this are waiting for someone to
love them. You can buy them cheap, but there is nothing
inside. The estimate is it will cost $3,000- $5,000 per
10 sq ft to rehabilitate them, and can take a long time.

Jean, my long-lost twin sister and me above the cave city.

We got a chance to wander around for a while and were amazed at the throngs of people who had appeared since we started. There happened to be a street market and I found a couple of pairs of earrings I needed. I also found a few more gifts. After lunch, we bussed to Trani, a seaside town with next to no tourist experience, that will be our home for 3 nights before we fly back to the states. We got a chance to explore and had a dinner based on snack-sized foods.