Saturday, October 11, 2014

Matera

On the northern edge of southern Italy is a town called Matera and the ancient town of Sassi, not far from where I live in Gtottaglie.
 Depending on where you park and what day it is the first thing you walk up on is a local market, lots of old things.
Lazy dog at the market.  It was difficult to find a tourist information office at Materia, not far from the market or this lazy dog is a 0.50 euro WC, at the lower level of the stair case if a pile of maps.  This is probably the best place to get a map of Matera.
 A man playing an accordion in front of Santa Lucia.
 The church of Saint Francis of Assisi, also known as San Francisco.
 Around the corner from the market are streets that lead down into the ancient town of Sassi.
 This town is amazing, I can't imagine the look of this place has changed much over that past 1000 years.
 This is also famous as the location that Mel Gibson filmed the movie the Passion of Christ [POC] at.
 Being the Sassi are valleys that lead up to the city.  In the hills around the city you can see caves, places where I hope people use to live.
 The back side of Matera's Sassi.
 Through out the town are structures built into the side of mountains, like restaurants and homes, this is a monastery and church.  POC filmed a few scenes in this cave.
 Looking up from the low lands of Sassi.
 A very small church, this did not even have an information sign outside the front door.
 Another view of Sassi.
 All throughout the city is details craved into stone.  This is a lizard head carved into a larger statue of a replica of the Sassi.

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