Sassy in the Sassi?

 On Thursday the morning dawned fine with sunny skies after heavy thundershowers overnight in Locorotondo.  Headed toward Matera on some very pleasant back roads and managed an early check in at our rental. Just managed to do a few logistical things when the skies darkened and very quickly thunderstorms began again.  Decided we would just shelter inside for the evening.

Friday again dawned sunny so we headed out early for a hike we had read about that began at the edge of town to the Belvedere Murgia Timone. About a 30 minute walk from our digs into the Sassi (Districts - the ancient neighbourhoods with the cave housing etc.) to the starting point of the hike.

A fine morning of sunshine with a fairly challenging walk through a canyon including a Tibet style swing bridge over the river.

Finished the walk by mid-day and headed back to the apartment.  Stopped to pick up some bread for lunch and got the local specialty, Pane di Matera, described somewhere as "...a hulking beast of a loaf with a hard, dark brown crust and pale yellow crumb."

 Later in the afternoon we joined a guided walking tour we had booked.   Only one other person on the tour so we had lots of time with our guide, Gaetano. An excellent tour with great information on the history (all 12,000 years) of continuous human habitation in Matera, third oldest known after only Aleppo and Jericho.  We went right up to the 1950s when  people were still living in abject poverty in the caves and it was known as "the shame of Italy".  Government forcibly resettled people in newly built apartments and the site was more or less abandoned.  Some development started happening into the 1970s and 80s and then into the 21st century tourism started developing to what it is today.  A fascinating two hours we spent learning about a unique and fascinating place.