Day 21 - Puglia: Toni's Day - Monopoli & Matera

Today started with a trip into the town of Monopoli, which we were planning to visit at some point, but it turned out that the laundry was starting to stack up as and Monopoli has a number of laundrettes and was on the way to our afternoon destination of Matera, so off we went…. Getting all the washing done turned out to be relatively quick and easy, so we had some time to explore a bit of the old city (including getting a slice of pizza and some gelato for lunch). Like many of the old Italian cities, Monopoli is crammed full of architectural history with narrow cobbled alleyways and centuries-old stone buildings. Taking a walk through the medieval stone wall that surrounds the port, we came across a tiny little harbour where their little traditional fishing boats moored. Apparently each town has their own colour scheme (like a region’s sports colours) and the Monopoli boats are blue and red. It started to rain, and we had to get to Matera for a 4pm walking tour, so it was back on the motorway for our longest day trip drive of 2 hours. However, it was well worth it - Matera is just stunning. Initially we had a google maps issue that meant we found ourselves inside the no-drive zone of the old city. It meant we got told off as we were trying to turn around and head back to the Main Street, but it also meant that we had a gobsmacking moment when we drove around a corner and saw an ancient city on the hillside above us. We thought we’d seen some ancient history at many of the other old Croatian and Italian cities but this was extraordinary. Our guide (an historical expert on the area) took us on a tour that lasted nearly three hours long and explained Matera’s history from Neolithic times and the people who began living here around 12,000 years ago. There are remains of caves that were used as dwellings by families of shepherds who lived in the same cave as their animals. As well as doing academic research, our guide had spoken to people who’d lived in the caves right up until the 1970’s so was able to describe in detail what life was like for those who lived there. What’s more, we also got the rundown of where some movie scenes were filmed, including one of the later James Bond films. A mix of the extremely ancient along with something modern…. After a bit of information overload, we were both hungry and thirsty so managed to find a restaurant that had been built into a slightly more modernised cave. More excellent pasta (when in Italy…) and then back to our old farmhouse accommodation to rest up for the next day - our catamaran cruise. We were a little worried that we wouldn’t find where the car was parked as we were so late and so stressed when we parked that nobody took a photo of where it was, but thankfully Barb and Tony have pretty good navigation skills, so it turned out to be no problem.