Wednesday, November 26, 2008

YEA!! Clean clothes!!!!! (R says it doesn’t take much to make me happy … but he doesn’t have the laundry issues that I do…)

Okay, starting with dinner last night. Headed down Via Fiorintini, the main street in the Sassi where we’re staying, to Nadi, just a minute’s walk away. We were (surprise!) the first one’s there when they opened. Found a very nice table for two in the back. What is really fun here is that people don’t speak English – meaning our very, very limited Italian, their similar few words of English, and meaningful hand gestures! Rather fun!

This was the first time in three days when I really wanted to eat; tummy seemed to be getting along nicely, thank you very much! So, after ordering fizzy water and wine (and here I’d like to ask: Why is it that the immediate reaction is that English speaking people want STILL water??) I ordered risotto with black truffles for starters, with eggplant parmigan for seconds. R had ravioli “du jour” – it was very good, ricotta filled with a wonderful tomato sauce. He had a fillet of beef with lemon, Italian style, for his main course; it looked (and was) great! Now, I have to tell you, if you’ve never had truffles – you either LOVE truffles or you don’t – and I’m one of those who LOVE them!! They were WONDERFUL in the risotto; I can still taste them!! And eggplant was also good, but after the truffles, everything else was second best. I also had chocolate gelato for dessert. (Always a nice way to end a meal, if one can’t find a Magnum Classic!)

Our restaurant was hosting a dinner of an American tour group of 12 (also staying at our hotel). While traveling in groups has never been our idea of fun, I think if I couldn’t have any choice at a meal – if it was just presented to me – I would have real issues! I did not WANT sausage and turnips and peppers for dinner last night, but again, that’s just us!

Sauntered back to the Locanda (and up ALL those stairs!) in a gentle rain. End of a really lovely day!

Woke around 7 to fairly clear skies. Having a bathtub was wonderful, but I greatly overestimated the amount of bubbles the bath gel would make … whew!! Took a bit to clean it out, that’s for sure! Went down to breakfast; very good. Ham, cheeses, salami and sweets; very good; VERY intense hot chocolate!

By now, we figured we would head to the Laundromat. Got directions – a bit vague, but R said he had it – then packed up one of the suitcases, which was now totally FULL of dirty clothes, and headed UP. Fortunately we’re at the top of the hotel, and it’s just a couple flights of stairs to put us near the central plaza in town. Walked around the corner and down a couple of blocks, and voila! The parking garage! (R can find ANYTHING!!) We loaded up, and on our way down Via Nationale looking for the landmarks described for us at the hotel: 1) gas station; 2) right turn right BEFORE the second traffic light. Initially things looked very bleak, but I kept pressing on, and there was the laundry! Looks really new, and it was WONDERFUL!! Open from 7 a.m. – 10:30 p.m. and there was a wonderful man there to help us! (Which was good. Not saying we wouldn’t have figured things out, but it’s nice not having to – not very many words of any other language than Italian!) Loaded up two washers; took ½ hour, then ½ hour for the dryer – and other than R’s really thick socks, things were actually DRY! I was SOOOO happy for the clean clothes! (Again, R says it doesn’t take much to make me happy, but I do have issues.) I also washed a pair of my jeans (I don’t put them in the dryer) – and we’ll see if/when they ever dry! (One needs to call downstairs and ask for the heat to be turned on; it’s on now, and I’m sure the jeans will be dry by morning!)

From there, we headed back to the hotel. Dropped things off, and headed out for a walk around the city.

Oh! Need to tell everyone, that we’ve modified our arrangements a bit. We REALLY love Matera, so have decided that after our stays in Taranto, Brindisi and Lecce, we’re going to come back here for two more nights! (We looked at another room -- #30, but prefer “ours” – even though it has a larger TV and a Jacuzzi tub – we really like this location and the size of the rooms/caves…) To do this, we’ve cut out our night at Frascati (which is fine with R) and one of the nights at Fiumicino. So, from Matera, we’ll head to Paestum for two nights, then a straight shot up to Rome and home!

The walk was lovely; beautiful day (even though I still need to find a scarf!); the views over the town looking down into the ravine were incredible. We saw the original caves that had made up the first civilization – probably during the stone age. Apparently at some time they were abandoned (probably because of waste) and shifted across the ravine to where we are now. (Couldn’t help but think that Bob Zappala would LOVE this area!!) As we were winding into the old area, we were targeted by a tourist guide – who wanted to take us on our own personal tour…which we did. To be honest, this young woman spoke English faster than I’ve ever heard it spoken before (and I speak English!) – albeit with an Italian accent. She was very interesting, but wow, did she have a lot of information packed into her spiel! She showed us some of the old sassi – the area that had been cleared by the government and all the people relocated in the late 1950’s and 60’s. These caves are SMALL and housed large families AND their animals! – they had no water, sewage or electricity! Just an incredibly difficult way to live! There were also some old caves used as churches. Don’t know how any of these folks survived, as their only water was from cisterns which ran off from the roofs and roads! YEK! Talk about diseases! Ugh! We walked into and out of various caves; talk about exercise!!

Dropped off the guide around lunchtime, and we headed UP … and UP … and UP…finally wound our way back into the more commercial part of town, and found a lovely little spot on the top of the restored old convent Palazzo dell’Annunziata. Lovely view! We both had two glasses of Prosecco. I had an insalata caprese – tomatoes with mozzarella and basil. R had a warm focaccio sandwich of ham, tomatoes, fontina cheese and lettuce. Don’t know about R’s, but mine was GREAT! Headed back to the hotel then (it was after two) for a rest and to catch up on notes!

I’m now raring to go; R trying to finish his book! I want to passagiata (and look for a scarf!) before we decide what to do about dinner!!

Take care! Lots of love!
m

PS … Okay…passigiata and cena (dinner). We headed UP to the upper (non-cave) part of town around 5:30. Walked a bit, and R pulled me into a shop where I found a wonderful (and WARM) long scarf; such a good idea! (Although how many scarves do I have at home???) Walked the adjacent blocks along with the other folks in town; great fun; just wish I was a shopper! Decided that, as we still had a ways to go until dinner time, that we would return to the nice place we had lunch. This time, had glasses of prosecco with olives (R ate TWO plates full!) and nuts and pretzels. Left the Terrazza and headed back to Nadi, our restaurant of last night. WONDERFUL dinner! I had tagliatelle with white truffles; al dente pasta; just perfect! R had homemade gnocchi – made by our wonderful waitress, who told us that she emigrated from Romania three years ago! (Wonder if my Italian would be that good in three years…) We both had the chicken for main course, along with an order of roast potatoes and grilled veggies. This time, zucchini and melanzane (eggplant); interesting thing is that the vegetables are served cold! Unusual! Everything was GREAT; really enjoyed it! Have threatened to return there next week! Home by about 9:15 p.m. – blue jeans are DRY and ready to go! Will collapse into bed; more tomorrow!!

m