An Extra for a Guide

Friday, September 20, 2013
Matera, Basilicata, Italy
We head upstairs for breakfast, it is beautifully set out, we are the only guests here today. The owners have a family wedding and won't be here today, but during breakfast Manuela stops in. She has a beautiful ruffled suit on for the wedding and looks like an as actress. She chats for a moment but has to run.....
Back to breakfast, on the table are fresh pastries, fruit,little glasses filled with fresh yogurt drizzled with honey, bread, jams,nutella, foccacia with tomatoes . They make us a delicious cappuccino, I eat just about everything.
We head down our winding street, we hear a lady shouting, "that's it, we've got to go" We laugh and say, "Americans-New Jersey?? Turns out they are from Philly on a five week trip, they are heading to the trulli, we chat for quite a while, we continue on. Several feet down the block, a couple asks us a question in a terrible accented Italian, American?,yes from East Hampton,we chat with them a while and find out we are on the same flight home. What chance meetings these are, on a street here in Matera.

We hurry now as we are meeting a guide at noon, it takes us a while to find him. He is Salvatore, dressed in jeans, t shirt, and blazer type jacket, all in grey, and it is very warm. He has long hair pushed back with a headband, and though we are the only clients, he has the shuttle bus. Here we go........

HE is very dramatic and quite zealous about the sassi . It seems in 1950, they were condemned and the people forced to relocate to new section of the city. His father at 14 joined a group called the scarpetta and they decided to restore the sassi. These caves date back to prehistoric times. Centuries of civilization compressed into one small settlement. They restored the caves by digging out and adding on outside. The city is divided into two sections, the Duomo on top is the center, it has been under restoration for twenty years. We saw a miniature version of the city...then went into a museum that showed what a typical dwelling would be like. Salvatore shuttled us around very quickly but we found it all so interesting. We agree that this is the most fascinating place we have been to in Italy. OH, our guide was an extra in Mel Gibson's movie.He showed us all the places where the movie was shot, it was a great, informative tour. At its end Salvatore told us we had to pay more than agreed because it was private-ah the Italian way.....but in the end we felt it was well worth such an incredible history lesson.
 
He left us off close to our b&b, but we'd been turned around and thought we were on the other side, so we walked an hour in the wrong direction, and then an hour back in the right direction. All of this with an uphill climb at the end.

I didn't think we would make it out again, but this time we stayed at the level piazza on the top and had a wonderful dinner, 5 different appetizers, fresh mozzarella, eggplant, olives and sliced meats, salads,mushrooms, followed by delicious pasta,although the second platter was included, we could not eat anymore. We walked a bit listening to American music ,trekked uphill and buona Notte
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Comments

Nancy
2013-09-22

Salvatore sounds like Antonio. Very passionate.

2025-02-15

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