Trani, Andria, Matera.

9-16-12 POLIGNANO A MARE, ITALIA: The day started with another hotel breakfast, and then back in the Fiat for a run up the Adriatic coast to see the quaint fishing villages. They are all up-scale, large and busy resorts now. The last one, Trani, has a seaside Cathedral, named for St. Nicholas, as is at least one church or cathedral in each town in Apulia. For the sailors, the mouth of the harbor is marked by a red and a green buoy. As you look out to sea, the red one is on the right.

We turned inland to Andria, a medium sized town with an olive oil factory. Nearby is the Castle del Monte. It was built originally by Frederick II of Germany, son of Frederick Barbarossa, in the 1100’s, later torn down and re-built in the 1500’s on the original plan. The views go for miles, good for seeing if any strange armies are in the neighborhood. Inside there’s a big courtyard and around that eight rooms on the first level and eight more on the second, big rooms to be sure. The walls are perforated by many vertical slits for archers. For me, the use in construction of limestone, marble and breccia was interesting.

The road to Matera took us through a forested national park and agricultural zones. There were several dairy farms with black and white cows, and other farmers were plowing fields. We even got to spend a bit of time on the road observing large tractors from the rear. We saw more trulli near Andria.

Matera was quite dramatic. The old town is built on the side of a ravine on the limestone bedrock. The limestone is riddled with caves and grottoes. The houses, some of them, are little more than walled off caves, others built out of the caves and newer ones made out of limestone. These houses are called sassi. Churches from the 800’s are basically grottoes with fading frescoes. The bigger, later churches are on top of the ravine as is the new city. Mixed in with the sassi are modern hotels and medieval churches. You can walk through the region going up and down the many flights of stairs again and again.


Trani, Cathedral of St. Nicholas on the Adriatic and the harbor. Do you think they keep the reindeer in the basement?

Andria, Castle del Monte has a great view of the region and interesting use of different construction stone.

Another trullo seen on the road to Matera. There were dozens, we thought we had been transported to Middle Earth.

Matera. The old town is built on a steep limestone hillside, and the houses, called sassi, are made of the limestone and some are built into it, basically enlarged caves. Later buildings, churches mostly, and new buildings, hotels mostly, are mixed in with the sassi. If you walk down all those stairs, remember, you have to come back up.

Matera. The oldest churches, 9th century are enlarged grottoes with faded frescoes. The ravine and sassi, newer buildings on top.

More sassi.