Visit to Matera Is Highlight of Southern Italy Trip
A view of Matera, the European Capital of Culture for 2019.
They say timing is everything. That was certainly true in my case, beginning with the first day in mid-October when I landed at the airport in Catania, Sicily. Just two days earlier, the airport had been closed due to nearby Mt. Etna’s volcanic eruptions. But fortunately the airport reopened just in time. And then my hotel turned out to be on a main street, Via d’Etna, right across from the Rinascente department store, which was celebrating its 60th anniversary with a concert in front of the store and a 20 percent discount on all its beautiful merchandise. This was an auspicious beginning to a wonderful trip. Of course, if you are in Catania, you must go to the famous pescheria, the big market just a stone’s throw from the sea where many kinds of fish are sold — so fresh you can see the gleam in their eye.
Plus you’ll find many varieties of fruits, vegetables, cheese and meat, all so fresh. Naturally the market opens early as the fishermen bring in their catch. But outside the market, a group of men gathered mid-morning biding their time — playing cards at a table while waiting for prices to drop after most of the shoppers leave by around noon. Of course, Elephant Square and the Bellini Opera House are not to be missed either. The Teatro Massimo Bellini was named after its famous native son, Vincenzo Bellini, whose operatic masterpiece “Norma” was inaugurated at the theater in 1980 (after which the famous dish “pasta Norma” is named). Another highlight of my stay in Catania was a trip to the Museum of the Allied Landing in Sicily (Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia).
The vivid scenes of devastation all over Sicily from World War II were of course displayed in the museum, but to bring home what it must have felt like to live through the war, visitors were able to go into a “bomb shelter” — a darkened room with the doors closed where visitors could hear the sounds of sirens blaring and bombs dropping while sitting on benches with the walls vibrating behind them. After seeing the trauma of war, it was a relief to get on the ferry across the Straits of Messina and go to Tropea, a beautiful coastal resort area in western Calabria. Unfortunately, we missed the Tropea Blues Festival by a few days, but we were able to stroll through the city and enjoy the magnificent view of a Benedictine monastery perched on land jutting out into the beautiful deep blue sea. The volcanic island of Stromboli could be seen in the distance. Tropea, a favorite resort of Italians during the summer, is famous for its delicious red onions.
A wonderful spot just a short distance away is the Popilia Country Resort in Maireato, where visitors can stay in one of the many cottages connected by winding brick lanes with palm trees and colorful bougainvillea. On one side is the sea and on the other side are the hills. Beautiful!! Before heading to Tropea, we made a brief stop in Reggio Calabria to visit the national museum (Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia) to see the world-famous Riace Bronzes — the magnificent Greek statues of the Old Warrior and Young Warrior that were fished out of the shallow waters of the Calabrian town of Riace in 1972. The restoration of the bronzes has been completed and they now stand on earthquake-proof pedestals.
Up the road from Tropea on the western coast of Calabria is the town of Pizzo Calabra, known for its fortress-like prison where Napoleon’s brother-in-law Joachim Murat was executed in 1815. This massive structure overlooking the sea was initially built to fight off pirates. After Napoleon’s fall, Murat, who had been a Marshal of the Empire and the King of Naples, faced death with bravery, even ordering his loyal men to go ahead with the firing squad.Next up was the highlight of the trip — a visit to Matera while it was the European Culture Capital for 2019. This distinction drew hundreds of thousands of visitors from not just Europe but all over the world, and even tour groups of Italians from other parts of Italy.
Tropea is a beautiful coastal resort in western Calabria
Five years ago, after Matera was designated by the European Union as the European Capital of Culture for 2019, efforts began to spruce up the city, widen the main road to Bari, the closest airport, and add accommodations for the big influx of visitors from around the world. This unique chance for Matera to increase its international visibility was helped by the over $55 million in national and European funds. Matera, the 8,000-year-old city in the region of Basilicata, was once a poverty-stricken area with inhabitants living in caves (sassi) until the 1950s. But now the city has been transformed, as it has seen a big increase in tourism and become a hub for high-tech start-ups. And it’s proved very popular as a movie location, especially for movies requiring a location that looks like ancient times were shot in Matera, including the Ben Hur remake.
The weather in October was warm and sunny during the day and a little cool in the evening — not surprising given that Matera is located in the mountainous area of Basilicata. There was music, art and culture on display everywhere. The city’s Palazzo Lanfranchi Museum featured the artwork of Carlo Levi, whose book “Cristo si è fermato a Eboli” (“Christ Stopped at Eboli”) drew attention to the plight of this once-poverty-stricken area. Carlo Levi’s murals and paintings were on display, including the triptych he was commissioned to create to mark the 100th anniversary of Italian unification.
This museum in the center of the city features a large outdoor sculpture that one could look at as either a raindrop or a teardrop. Surrealist sculpture by Salvador Dali was on display all over the city, and there was music everywhere, whether in small groups on street corners around the city, or a lone accordionist sitting on a church step. One of the most prominently placed Dali sculptures was the “Surrealist Piano” in the piazza in front of one of the main churches (the piano’s legs are shaped like a woman’s thighs and the feet are wearing highheeled boots — of course). In September, the new James Bond 25 movie “No Time to Die” was filming a dramatic car chase through the streets of Matera. Since this is Daniel Craig’s last time playing James Bond, the movie may bring some welcome publicity to Matera, and those who can’t wait for the movie’s scheduled release in April can see the car chase scene on YouTube.
Meanwhile, in mid-November the city of Matera was hit by the same bad weather and high winds and heavy rain that battered Sicily, Puglia and especially Venice. The area of the sassi was especially hit hard. But the city has shown its resilience in the past. For this coming year it is planning to build on the momentum of 2019 with events showcasing the art, music and culture of this amazing city, which is considered one of the oldest continually inhabited areas in the world. And in November, Matera celebrated the inauguration of a solar-powered train station designed by Stefa
Hotel Lloyd’s Baia (right foreground) in Vietri sul Mare is carved into a cliff overlooking the Gulf of Salerno
no Boeri, the architect of Il Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) in Milan prior to the Expo in 2015. And if you come during the Christmas season, you can see Il Presepe Vivente nei Sassi di Matera, a live nativity scene, considered the most impressive in Italy, The live nativity takes place during December and the theatrical performances of six different parts of the nativity story take place in locations around the city — so many reasons to visit this amazing city. The Presepe Vivente was incorporated into the closing ceremony during which Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini on December 20 declared:
“The victory of 2014 (when Matera’s bid to be culture capital was successful) was brought to a successful conclusion. It launched a path of sustainable development that I am sure will continue with determination.” Leaving Matera, we headed northwest towards Benevento, a city in Campania known for the magnificent Arch of Trajan, a famous monument to the Emperor Trajan. Benevento also boasts the largest winery in the Campania region, Feudi di San Gregorio. The winery started as a cooperative of 30 families after World War II and now has 1,000 members and uses solar panels and the latest methods for producing wine made only from local grapes.
One of its buildings was designed by a Japanese woman architect to blend the modern and traditional styles into the winery. Next up was a visit to a leading chocolate maker in the nearby village of San Marco dei Cavoti. Amazingly enough, this village has 9 competing chocolatiers, but the Autore chocolatiers we visited specialized in making candy from the finest ingredients, including pistachios from Sicily and hazelnuts from Avellino. What goes with wine, of course, is cheese, so we visited an organic farm near Paestum, site of the famous Greek and Roman ruins.
The farm is known for its fresh bufala mozzarella, made from 200 water buffalo from India. These lucky buffalo are treated to massages while they listen to Mozart. No wonder they make such good mozzarella, so fresh and delicious. The final stop was Vietri sul Mare, a beautiful ceramics center at the foot of the Amalfi Coast that is close to Salerno. While in Vietri, we stayed in the Hotel Lloyd’s Baia, a beautiful hotel carved into a cliff overlooking the Gulf of Salerno where I had stayed some 15 years ago. And it was just as I remembered it, complete with a big veranda with palm trees and wroughtiron furniture — a perfect spot for sipping limoncello in the evening while looking out at the little fishing boats with their lights on. It was like being in another world, until it was time to leave and get back to the “real world” and start looking forwarding to the next trip. ❚