Mezzogiorno Coast

Friday October 17, 2008

We are now in territory new to us and did not know what to expect. Please do not tell anyone, but this place is beautiful. We don’t need any more people making this into another Amalfi. We are in Maratea, a small town in the province of Basilicata on the west coast. We spoke Italglish with our landlord and she recommended a few places near here to visit including the town of Maratea itself. We decided to follow her advice for today’s itinerary.

Maratea is one of those little places that outsiders don’t know well but is packed with Italians during the summer. Right now, the hotels are empty and there are fewer people about so it is quite nice. We compare the scenery around here to what we have seen in Cinque Terra or on the Amalfi coast but the area is far less developed and quieter. We drove to Maratea and wandered through a beautiful old town, which is actually pretty expensive due to the Italians who summer here. It is one of the prettiest towns we have seen, with lovely squares, shops, stepped lanes, and winding streets. After walking through the town, we drove up the mountain on which it sits to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer on the top. It is smaller than the one in Rio but quite spectacular, and it shares its 2000-foot high mountaintop and its spectacular views down to the sea and to the surrounding mountains with a basilica.

From there, we drove north along the coast, ending up on a beautiful and nearly empty beach for lunch, then back down south of our apartment and into the region of Calabria. One of the places we stopped at was Tortora, an old town perched on a cliff on top of a hill, as you can see in the pictures. This town is the real deal, with little done to pretty up the houses, but there seems to be a lot of reconstruction beginning and there are many places for sale. The only way through the town is a one-lane, two-way road, which we navigated pretty easily because we were there during the 12-2PM time when everything shuts down. From there, we drove down the coast to admire the views and walk through another town before heading back here to our apartment.

Tomorrow we head inland, to visit Matera.

Mel and Tom