Matera

​The second oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. For more than 9,000 years people have lived in the caves in the mountains.

Granted UNESCO world heritage site honors in 1993. 

European Capitol for Culture in 2019. 

This is Matera.

This city is fascinating. Until 1952 poor people lived in the caves - with their animals - in the sides of mountains without any power or water. The government removed them due to disease and sickness. It was considered, at that time, to be Italy’s greatest shame.

Today the city is the country’s architectural star. These people still live in caves, but in much different circumstances. In fact, we are staying in a renovated cave house that, on the inside shows no signs of being a cave.

We arrived last night to an opera singer performing, and the acoustics of the limestone carried her voice through the SASSI.

The stairs here among the mountain levels and elevation zones are no joke. 

Today we took a historical walking tour and learned about their complex system for collecting water in underground cisterns.

The area hosts more than 150 churches cut into the rock. We toured one of the oldest today.

After lunch, we visited one of the art museums with a Dali exhibit.

Keagan and I had our daily dose of gelato, and then we all went home to take naps. We spent the late afternoon hours on the balcony listening to the birds chirp - living La Dolce Vida.

We tried to be Italian and eat a late dinner. They typically eat at 9:00, when I’m already in bed. But tonight we held strong and stumbled upon a restaurant with terrace seating. We were there to see the sun set. 

The Old Town streets were teaming with people - all Italians - at 9:30. All were out for gelato, sitting at outdoor trattorias having dinner, and enjoying the much cooler temperatures. 

We are on the road again tomorrow to see Puglia.

Ravello

​I woke up at 0700 to fireworks. Is the village celebrating the arrival of the weekend? I’m not sure. I had a lazy morning on the porch looking out over the water. Wes went to find a post office to pay our ticket. I’m still winning on this trip. 

I’m saddened that we are leaving this village and this beautiful house. This tile work is so beautiful.

And the views.

And the gardens.

But Ravello stole my heart. We drove an hour to the mountains where we found the most perfect spot on the Amalfi Coast. 

We parked the car and then walked up ♾️ stone steps to the pedestrian zone. 

We toured the gardens of Villa Cimbrone where the views of the water below were jaw dropping. While it was a home years ago, it has been converted to a hotel. I told Wes it has rooms and plants. It’s just like The Opryland Gaylord. Same. Same.

Then we walked into the plaza where we stopped for melonello spritz made with the liquor Passoa.

It was delish! It topped my challenge list! We did some window shopping, bought some pasta, and Keagan got his daily dose of gelato. 

We made friends with more feral cats. Keagan and I stop to chat with every one we spot.

This village of Ravello was quaint, quiet, and just perfect with a dose of history and modern conveniences. We all agreed that we would live here. There were tourists, but it didn’t feel overrun or super crowded. Love. Love. Loved it!

On our way back down the mountain we captured this view of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius.

Ciao Costeria Amalfitana. La prossima volta.

Capri

​That 0550 alarm was a killer today! I’ve never had trouble with jet lag, but this trip has been the worst for me. NBA Finals, World Cup Games, phone calls from people in the US, a 0455 sunrise, and a seven hour time difference make sleeping difficult. Keagan just decided he would sleep if he was tired, so it’s 1830 and he’s in bed. He will be up at 0300 to watch the US game.

Let me just start by saying Capri is so popular with tourists, and I really looked forward to this part of the trip because of the great reviews. But I don’t know why people love it so. It’s crowded. Expensive. No beach to speak of. And expensive. 

Early this morning we took a small group chartered cruise to the island off of Italy. We drove to Sorrento and caught our boat in the harbor there. The day started windy, and the water was very rough - so choppy it was a tad uncomfortable on the boat. In fact, our first stop, The Blue Grotto, was closed due to the water levels and waves. No biggie. We have seen grottos.

The island of Capri is small and hordes of tourists take the ferry over for a day trip. No biggie. We will work our way around them. We thought we would go up a little higher on the mountain to Anacapri to avoid the people, but crowds of people from every nation were thick there too. We did what every other person did and got in line for the highly popular chair lift to the highest point on the island. The ride was 24 min of pure peace and quiet. 

We still had a couple of hours to kill. So we had lunch at a pizzeria that wasn’t very good. Bad food is no good. Expensive bad food is real bad. The island now had three strikes. We were eager to get away from the crowds, but our tour still had one hour on the island. What else could we do? We browsed the streets and then picked up gelato before returning to the boat. Gelato makes everything better, but it can’t erase a strikeout. Keagan says the island gives Disney World Vibes. My boy of few words hit the nail on the head.

The water had actually calmed down by early afternoon, so the ride to the back side of the island was pleasant. 

We might have skipped The Blue Grotto, but we made it to The Green Gotto. It was beautiful! Look at that water color!

The boys jumped in for a refreshing swim. I sat on the boat soaking up the sun.

Then we took the corner to The White Grotto where the Virgin Mary can be seen in a stalactite. If you don’t see it, just pretend you do. 

The iconic rock formations off of Capri were next. It’s said if you go here with your significant other, your relationship will last forever. This is where we ran into Jerry Jones’s yacht. I feel like there is a  joke there that I can’t articulate right now due to a lack of sleep.

Our last stop was a drive by a natural waterfall to wash all of the salt off of the skin. This was a full day on the water with the island seen from the boat much more enjoyable that seeing the island on foot.

Tonight’s view of Vietre Sul Mar from our house on the road to Raito was beautiful. The sun hit the pastel colored houses perfectly.

My spritz challenge update: Campari Spritz is my least favorite spritz; it tastes terrible. Tomorrow’s a new day and a new spritz flavor. Let’s try not to strike out again.

Postiano

​Postiano has my heart. The pastel colored cliff side buildings. The bluest of blue water. The oleander and bougainvillea. I get the hype. 

But before we got to Postiano we started the day in Maiori where we hiked on the Lemon Trail to Minori. 

The trail takes you among the lemon groves, olive trees, and vineyards. People say the smell is fantastic!

The trail was steep. I have no idea why anyone would live on these terraces and walk the path every day, but people do. Donkeys carry the baskets of lemons down the steep steps to the streets. 

After our pit stop for smoothies in Minori, we climbed back the opposite direction and stopped to pet every feral cat on our path. After climbing lots of steps, I asked Keagan how his knees were holding up. He said, “Not well; it’s much like that ox tail I ate where the meat was falling off the bone.” 😂😢

Keagan says forget couches. His first purchase in January post-graduation will be a cat.

From here we drove along the Amalfi Coast hitting the villages of Atrani, Amalfi, and Praino. The crowds from the ferry were crazy in Amalfi, so we kept driving. We were stopped in Furore for some time for traffic, so I got out of the car and grabbed this picture. 

Just stunning!

And then Postiano! 

We had a delicious lunch with polenta sticks

Fried pizza dough with radish

And pasta

I mean how beautiful is this cannelloni!?!

For dessert I had caffe affogato. 

And all of these pictures of my food prove I’m American because only Americans are left swooning with the quality of the food in Europe.

We tested several seasoning mixes at a fruit stand. They all called my name, so I bought them.

Keagan heard the sirens’ call for fresh fruit juice and purchased.

The food was so good that I didn’t give a second thought to our parking ticket. But in all honesty, parking is hard here. These villages were not built with cars in mind. 😂 We have to go to the post office before we leave the province to pay it. Or the price doubles.

We braved the traffic to head back home to Vietre sul Mare. Traffic is a beast!

And growing bougainvillea is my next home project. I’ll throw in oleander for good measure. Or I could just move to Italy where it’s already growing strong. 

By the way, the spritz challenge is going well. The spritz con fiori di sambuca is my favorite. I love playing games when I win, and I’m winning at life this week!