Farewell Italia, closing thoughts

We awoke opposite the cave dwelling town of Matera. So what is wrong with this town?

It is a bright and clear morning. Today we are going back to the Sassi, this time to the other side of town. Apparently this one has had more in the way of restoration.

From the other side of the gorge it still looks cute.

But it is as you approach, as you get nearer. It starts to look like a movie stage set, just a little bit fake, a little bit unreal.

Actually the analogy with a stage set is wrong. On a stage set they would age their buildings.

Here everything is pristine, recently jet washed to a gleaming just built look. Not a stain on it.

This clinical appearance is everywhere, and it makes it look completely unnatural.

Only occasionally do you get a hint at the real, this hand painted (badly) sign to some makeshift museum, maybe it is deliberate.

There are many such museums in Matera.

It gets to the point where you do not believe what is real. Is that fake washing hanging out to dry to make it look like people actually live in this place. Every morning they wheal out the same washing on the same washing line!

We pop into a local museum and it tells a fascinating story of how people used to live. The livestock used to inhabit the caves with them because they were so valuable and there was little grazing land. It must have been pretty squalid, it must have smelt pretty bad.

The figures are carved out of local stone, very abstract. But where is that town, it is certainly not here, it is not this Matera.

This is a place that now turns its back on the local people. People who a generation ago would have lived here, now they never go. Why would they? There is nothing here for them. They stay at the top of town, in the new part. What a shame. This is why it is so fake, so plastic, so unreal.

Plastic plants, no the refurb. team have yet to get to this bit. Soon it will like the rest, boutique hotels, overpriced restaurants with tourist menus and tat shops. It might as well be McD’s, Starbucks, Holiday Inn’s and Segway tours, might have trouble with all those steps though. If you don’t know what a ‘Segway tour’ is lucky you. They are soon to be in every tourist destination worldwide for $25 an hour!

We did find an interesting place though. A sort of gallery come conference facility.

It had to have the ubiquitous Le Corbusier chair, we have some of these at home, ours are in black with chrome frames. Every architect has these at home. Looks good in white, must be a bugger to keep clean though.

And yes it is still in a cave. How cool is that.

I would love to see a presentation here. Maybe that is what this part of town needs, not just looking to the tourist, looking further afield.

Very creative design also.

Although we did have to have serious word with them about copying our logo.

We tried to find the less well refurbed areas to find out what this place might have actually been like.

But they were at it again with the church, which was being primarily funded by the EU. Is this a really good allocation of funds in the austerity times? Can’t the catholic church stump up from its own billion dollar war chest or no that is paying off all the paedophile claims! But why aren’t the tourists funding it?

We do find a few ‘caves’ abandoned.

Not yet bought back to an unnatural life.

Unrefurbished caves like this one bring us back to reality. It reminds us that the rest of the town has been redecorated for our own pleasure. Life wasn’t probably like they are showing here. The roads were probably dusty tracks, and smelly, due to lack of a draining system. Here they have been repaved with white, polished stones. The dwellings were probably cold, grotty, unclean, due to lack of proper sanitation and water systems. Here they have been cleaned and smell lovely, and they have brought in restored and brand new furniture. SM

Maybe this is not a place to return to, it can only get worse!

We move on. Bari is just an hour away and our ferry awaits.

Bari is like any other ferry town…grim. Think Dover or Algeciras with blue skies (Algeciras  already has those).

There are big boats everywhere.

Including this burnt out old wreck, the Norman Atlantic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Norman_Atlantic

14 people died in the fire and rescue operation in 2014, but over 400 were rescued.

A Turkish passenger reported having seen illegal Afghan immigrants, who had boarded the ship concealed in a lorry, having lit a fire at the ship’s garage to keep themselves warm, as the probable cause of the disaster. (Source Wikipedia)

It is always down to those pesky immigrants!

Dora looks worried as we pass the MS Norman Atlantic, she is a reluctant sailor.

Our ship is mainly used for transporting goods between Italy and Greece. There are a lot of Bulgarian lorries waiting to board.

Hope she lives up to her name.

We are pretty much the first to board into her cavernous hold. We go up the ramp to the left. It is a bit steep for Dora, but at least we are still a bit outside.

We even have a sea view.

We have  this ticket that allows ‘camping on board’. No cabin for us, we will be keeping Dora company amongst the many trucks.

Our company is mainly truck drivers, there are only about six other motorhomes on board.

The facilities are adequate, like a cross channel ferry really.

It even has the same sort of decor, we will set sail at 19.30 and arrive in Patra at 13.30 tomorrow. There is one stop, opposite Corfu, but hopefully we will still be asleep.

We explore the ship, and find all the vantage points, we still have an hour or so before departure, so our thoughts turn to Italy.

 

Our departure from a country always seems to rush up on us, come about all of a sudden. At least here we have a leisurely cruise to our next destination.

So final thoughts;

The landscape has impressed beyond my wildest expectation. I never knew of the beauty of the mountains and the coastline.

The culture has been wonderful but so poorly displayed, either trying to be too clever, or just a complete lack of effort (the Greeks know how to do it).

The driving, well we survived.

The people are pleasant enough, but this is where we get back to the driving, there is an arrogance and selfishness which pervades their actions. This is epitomised by the disgusting state of parts of there countryside, which, maybe the actions of just a few but is put up with by the rest.

There is also a cheeky tendency to get the most out of you if you are not sharp enough. Examples: the woman at the car park, trying to charge us an extra night or the guides at Vesubio trying to charge us €80 for taking us along the crater. We are not talking about people living on the streets, we are talking about business owners, who earn their living out of people like us and, therefore, they have vested interests in us being happy with the service they provide us. SM

We will return, later in this trip and hopefully again in future years to explore the mountains and to see Stromboli’s fireworks.

The ship gradually fills with trucks.

Dora gets plugged in so we have electricity and can continue blogging. We don’t have access to the cooker, no gas allowed, we don’t want another fire. We have made a salad and pre-cooked some chicken plus a nice bottle of wine.

They tie the trucks down to prevent them from moving around, although the sea looks incredible calm.

Dora will get no such treatment, but we find some wheel chocks so she doesn’t feel left out.

And soon it is time to leave port, leave Italia.

We have had an amazing 39 days and experienced so much.

We head into the Adriatic sea.

Tomorrow Greece.

GDR