Very warm this morning. 38 degrees C by 10:00am.
We left Metaponto this morning, but before leaving town we thought that we would check out the Greek ruins that are mentioned in the guidebooks. Metaponto is a very small place, but they managed to hide these ruins very well, and no signage to speak of. So after driving down every road in town we finally stumbled on them almost by accident just as we had decided to leave town. It is a few kms out, and is essentially a field full of stones, with a few columns. It looks like they are trying to do a refurb … in their own way, and their own time. There are the remains of a small theatre there and they have tried to create the illusion of what it would have been like, by building over the existing stone steps with steel seats. It would have been better if they had left it alone. The remains of the columns, they beautify by plastering a large informative sign across the face of the columns. The whole place looks like it has been started and they just haven’t got around to finishing it yet. The remains themselves are quite interesting some dating back to 7th century BC, it’s just a shame that the subsequent years have seen so much plunder and lack of interest.
After leaving here we went to Matera. This town is the site that Mel Gibson used for ‘The Passion of the Christ. We haven’t seen the movie, but I can see how it would be applicable. The main attractant in the city are the caves, the remnants of a lost peasant culture. The city is situated on the side of a cliff, and on the cliff walls you can see hundreds of caves on both sides of the very steep valley. These caves were continuously occupied for over 3000 years, and the people that lived in them were only moved out in 1952 (when they started the relocation). It took them 15 years to move half the population of what was essentially an underground city. The land was harsh, the infant mortality rate was 50%. We went into one cave that was set up exactly how they lived. There had been two adults and nine kids living there when they were relocated up the hill … oh, and a horse and a few hens. These weren’t caves as we know them, but rather underground houses carved out of rock.
But you don’t see this when you first drive into Matera, what you see is what appears to be a thriving city, with an old city built out of the predominant white stone. The day we were there they were in the process of setting up, what we would call very extravagant Christmas lights, for an upcoming festival. It’s not until you turn a few corners and descend some stairs that you find the other Matera. It really is very cool. We would have liked to spend more time exploring this place, but we had a ferry to catch.
I was once told that when you are traveling it’s the things that go wrong that you remember the best. On that basis, this afternoon we created some very good memories. We arrived in Bari and went straight to the
Terminal. Once there we joined the very long and slow queue to receive our tickets. We had already booked on-line, but we still needed a ticket to board. We were standing in line with an Autralian group so we managed to while away the time comparing notes.
But it was all about to turn to custard. We handed over all the relevant forms (passports, email with confirmation of booking, vehicle documents), only to be told that the vehicle document that we had, wasn’t an original document and we wouldn’t be able to take the car with us to Croatia. We could go, but we would have to leave the car behind. That obviously wasn’t an option. The documents that we had been given back in Rome when we picked up the car weren’t originals. We should have asked, because now we wouldn’t be allowed into Croatia either by land or sea. So here we are in Bari, where we don’t want to be, at 9:00pm, needing somewhere to sleep.
We got on the phone (thank you Lonely Planet) and found somewhere an hour up the road in Trani. Now we have to figure out what to do.
What we have found is that everyone here is very helpful and will answer all your questions no problem at all, but when you move into the official circles, you just have to make sure that you ask the right questions, as information isn’t offered voluntarily. It’s a bit like “You didn’t ask”.
Ferry crossing to Croatia today (Yeah Right!). We will remember today.
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