Pietrapertosa

THIS is Pietrapertosa, across the valley and one of our most favorite places on earth!  

These 2 photos show the 2 churches, one on each end of town. And, YES! it is a long climb from our parking area at the bottom of town, shown below, to the top.

 Everyone here is so friendly and want to talk to visitors; these are a few of the folks I visited with during my walk.

So many people here are using canes; walking up and down the streets is very difficult on the cobblestones even when one does not have a physical problem.

So……I am sketching an old door and a young man parked right here, in the middle of Main Street…..but only for about 15 minutes. It was lunch time, so no other cars wanted through. It is not surprising that most of the cars are scratched/dented on the corners. Oh, yes, that arch is from the 1500’s…..very well built.

One of my favorite photos of today: colors and geometry.

We had lunch at the same place where we have eaten every time here. A man who had grown up here, become a professor in Salerno, met us in the street on our first visit. He took us inside, introduced us, and told them we would be back for lunch. Every time we have the special home made pasta, Maccheroni with Mollica (fried bread crumbs with walnuts and pepperoncini.


So, we returned to Campomaggiore, 20 switchbacks down to valley and 20 more back up on the other side….that is a total of 80 today in a distance of 26 miles. Good thing car sickness is not a problem. We do wonder how they got the parts for the wind turbines up here.Wednesday we leave the mountains and go to the coast of Puglia for 4 nights in Monopoli.

Castelmezzano

We started the day off with a private tour of the museum about the old Campomaggiore; our guide was the handsome young mayor. There was the coolest presentation, complete with holograms of actors telling the story of the Utopian village and the of the landslide the demolished the town of 1525 people, but they all survived and built the new town where we are now.

Next stop was down the mountain, across the highway and up another mountain to Castelmezzano. A small place nestled below the rocky tops of the Dolimiti Lucane mountains.

Just as we started to sketch the rain started, so we killed time over caffe and then had lunch with a nice view of the mountain tops.

One of us was happy with the bruschetta and pasta…..another thought that was not quite enough so ordered the veal but unable to finish it, brought it “home” for a sandwich for dinner.

 Major traffic jam on our way back to Campomaggiore.

Lots of rain in the evening, but Tuesday is to be beautiful and we will cross the valley again to go to Castelmezzano’s neighbor, Pietrapertosa…..hoping our favorite little trattoria is open…..they all,have a “closing day” so one never knows which day it will be.

The Last Ghost Town

After a very nice and reasonable breakfast, the young couple who own the B&B talked to us about the area, made a lunch reservation at the only restaurant, will make an appointment with the mayor for tomorrow to go through the museum about the old Campomaggiore (landslide of 1885, then moved everyone here), and said they would lead us by car to restaurant at 1:00. Talk about service! We walked around the town to get familiar with it. The closest village is Albano Lucania, spotlighted in the photo.

These are the mountains on the other side of the valley where we have visited 2 special villages in the past and will again while here; Pietrapertosa & Castellmezzano.

Our last Ghost Town is 3 miles below Campomaggiore on a narrow road. The landslide of 1885 demolished it and all that remains are walls, part of the church (steeple rebuilt), and the walls of the castle. It was a planned community; a utopian ideal begun in the 18th century. Unfortunately it was locked up.

There is a 10 day long performance here in August; that must be why there is apparatus around. 

Lunch was good; Gicamo, the owner, was the waiter too and teased us about ordering every course as “1 for 2.” He said the Italians EACH order that plate of antipasto, their full plate of pasta, then their meat course AND desert……he was pleased when we ordered 2 espressos at the end.

Easy Day in Bernalda

A short drive today to a small town nearby; Francis Ford Coppola bought an old palazzo and converted it into a VERY SUPER EXPENSIVE hotel. We looked all over for it, even knowing the street address, and could not find it…..there is no sign. If you NEED to know, you know. We had a delightful time in Bernalda’s old town and just outside it in the newer part of town.

St Bernardino of Siena is the Patron Saint…As one walks down the long street, he is quite an imposing figure.

The Caffe was almost too pretty to drink.

If I could not have an original Fiat 500, I would take this tiny old Mini Cooper; it would fit into a pocket solving parking problems. We found interesting chimneys here too. We had a nice lunch in a Trattoria right across from Coppola’s hotel. The plate of antipasto had many things: Procciuto, Mozzerella, eggplant that had a ton of perrproncino, roasted green pepper, thinly sliced fried zucchini, zucchini fritters,olives and fresh ricotta in the middle. Whew!

Saturday is Matera day……the HUGE croissants! (Cornetti in Italian)

THE Ghost Town

Weather cloudy today, but we went to Craco anyway. It was a fantastic medieval city at one time with a university and many big palazzos. After several landslides (very common around here) the last 1800 residents were moved to the area in the flat lands below to the new town of Craco Peschiera and the government built concrete apartments for them. This was in the 1963! Now the only way inside is to take a 1 hour tour with hard hats even….we have been walking around places that look a whole lot shakier! Here is Craco.

We spent the afternoon in Pisticci again, walked around to see their Mother Church, Norman castle, and what we thought was a rebuilt tower turned out to be a new water tower, right by the castle ruins!Another great lunch at the same restaurant and the same table.
Before heading back to “our” house in the countryside, we had a little snack with a café macchiato….very good dark chocolate!

Lots to Show

So, starting with Gallicchio, we drove through Misanello….not a ghost town now, but only 500 people live there although it looks like a large town. Then we stopped in Sant’Arcángelo. There are so many subjects in these places to sketch. While having our caffe this morning in Sant’Arcángelo, we met a man who had been an architect and now paints in oils. He invited us to his studio to see his paintings. They were lovely and just of this area. What a neat experience! Here are some shots from today.

Now, for all you foodies, here are our last 2 lunches plus the last treat at Civita.

Wednesday will be another of the ghost towns…..that we know about, and time in Pisticci where we had lunch Tuesday. We are renting a house in the countryside for the next few days and it is so peaceful and quiet.

The Plan

After a 4 hour layover in Rome, we will fly to Bríndisi, Puglia in the heel of Italy, then drive an hour to Martano where we will spend the first week. Puglia is often overlooked by tourists but is a great place to visit. They grow much of the wheat in Italy and are said to have the best bread in Italy (we think it is fabulous in ALL of Italy).

Here is the detailed map and another map to show that we are covering a small portion of this wonderful country.

See? Just a little portion. 

         This is why we are renting a small car; Gallicchio is stop #5.

Two very good DELICIOUS reasons to return to the heel (Puglia) and Basilicata are:

Crossaints in Matera Basilicata, and the pizza in Ótranto, Puglia.

Click on Photo to enlarge it….mmmmm.

AND here is the shocker…..the huge croissants cost the equivalent of 91¢ each

and the pizza (stuffs 2 hungry people) costs $5.75!