Lecce

We left Matera this morning, hopped back on the Magic School Bus, and headed for Lecce (pronounced Leh-chay). We stayed here for 3 nights, and during the days we would travel to various other cities. Lecce was our biggest city to visit so far, complete with a McDonalds.

Kendrae, Maiko and I shared this triple at the bed and breakfast. Oddly enough they didn't serve breakfast here, you had to go down the street to a bar for cappucinos and croissants in the morning.

Brandi, Diana, Susan, Jessie, and Danielle shared a 5 person room upstairs. As soon as you walked in the front doot, this is what you were confronted with. A shower the size of a large walk in closet with no curtain. You can see the front door open on the left. Privacy? No chance.

The 5 bed suite for the guys on the other hand, was amazing, complete with kitchen and rooftop terrace.

McDonald's Euro menu, somewhat equivalent to our dollar menu, but costs us 1.573 times more. Thank you dollar for your horrible exchange rate.

Lecce gelato stop!

Church in the main piazza in Lecce

The church ceiling, flat unlike most of the churches we have seen thus far, most have been with arches or groin valuts.

The main piazza in Lecce is make-out central. Nick and Tilder form a heart around a couple going at it on the other side.

Reflection of the piazza is Trevor's Pradas

Rococo, I think so.

It is interesting how columns right next to each other can deteriorate at different rates. Or was this on purpose?

Central Park, Lecce style.

Every city in Italy has a symbol or shield, this is Lecce's

On my derive around the city, I came upon this dog in the street with a mangled foot.

The gelato here is beautiful :)

Cats roam the streets. By the colossem, people put food out for them in this corner.

The main colosseum, at least the excavated part.

Lock your love on a lampost. A tradition that spawned from an Italian book (made into a movie) called "3 miles above the sky," or something like that.

The small ampitheater

The obelisk in Lecce by night, adorned by a giant pope.

And for your viewing pleasure:

Piazzas are places for lovers by night, and crazy dancing architecture students by day. Today we present West Side Story. Later that day, our huge group started walking towards another huge group or tourists, so we started snapping at them West Side style. It was great.

One last night/day in Matera

Not much to say about this day, most of it I spent sketching, and reading- school stuff, what a concept. I mixed up some photos though, so this first one is from the night after climbing the mountains (4.9.08)

Out at dinner at "The Orient Express" Oddly enough, they did not serve any chinese food. It was all pastas and seafood. I ordered a salad. Thank goodness, because evryone else got spaghetti scampi, and the shrimp were literally plucked from the ocean, put it a pot, and then thrown on the plate. Claws and all.

Our hotel room in Matera. A room carved into the Sassi hills. Very cool.

Other side of the room

One last view of Sassi during the day.

Matera Hiking

After the amazing dinner on the 8th, I had a not so amazing morning, seeing it all again it the toilet. I think that is enough detail for you there about that. Anyway, while everyone was exploring the city in the big group that morning, I was back at the hotel being sick, and then I slept for a few hours because I didn't feel well. Then around noon, everyone came back and I was feeling much better. Then, for the afternoon, everyone was on their own to do what they wanted, and so a group of us decided we wanted to hike up the mountains in Matera. I was ready to get out of the hotel anyway. For Matera, I didn't see much architecture outside of Sassi, and the building carved into the mountainsides (which were awesome), but I did see much of the beautiful natural side of things.

View down from the start of the journey


Following the leader


We were almost to the top and we stopped into some caves. This is our O-H-I-O from inside one of the caves, looking back out to Matera

Guys were trowing paper airplanes into the valley below. Its ok, its biodegradeable.

Trevor going from one side of the cave to the other

Denis playing king of the mountain

We never saw Steve's paper airplane land. It caught a drift and went on forever, we think it might have made it back to the U.S.

I am tired after the first mountain

Then, after the hike up, we hike back down to the bottom...again

And down there, we find this little abandoned chapel carved by the rock

There, we stop for lunch before hiking (more like rock climbing) up another smaller hill (mountain)

At the top of this mountain, there were some more caves, but they were less natural, with windows like this carved in them
Then, we hiked down that mountain, this is a view from Matera, looking back onto those caves. See the three little windows on the top? Thats where the previous photo was taken. Then we scaled down this hillside below them.

This is my favorite photo from the day. We had to cross the river 3 times, and this was on the last jump across. I feel like this could be one of those inspirational photos that says : "TEAMWORK" under it with some quote or definition.

Another shot of the river crossing

Trevor was stabbed by some rusty barbed wire in the valley, and hadn't had his tetnus shot. He later went to the hospital, and they told him the shot was more risky for his wound at the time, so he didn't get one. He's still alive, I think he'll make it.

And now for your viewing pleasure:

A view from the top

A river crossing

The Start of the Tour: Trani and Matera

Today we left from our familiar little Hotel Pennile, and hopped on our tour bus, with Carlo, our faithful bus driver, for our week and a half tour of southern Italy.

Diana, boarding the bus.

A rest stop on the road, it was a long trip, maybe 5 hours? I forget.

At the rest stop, everything was meaty, and semi-scary looking so I grabbed a Nutella snack pack with lemon tea (limone the)

We stopped at a coastal city called Trani on the way down to Matera. This is the harbor.

The church in Trani (St. Nicholas Cathedral) wasn't built into the urban grid of the city as many other churches are, but instead was isolated, and freestanding right next to the coast. It was also built on top of a crypt that was built above ground instead of under the ground as most are.

Jessie and Lewis walking the pier in Trani

The crypt!

While finishing my sketch of the Cathedral, it started raining on us, so we ducked inside for lunch.

Accordion player on the streets of Trani

After a brief few hours in Trani we hopped back on the bus and headed for Matera, on the way we drove past many olive farms that had been there for centuries, and there were Trulli, small domed dwelling or storehouses, scattered every so often.

When we arrive in Matera, we are overwhelmed by its amazing layout and use of space. The Sassi area (where we stayed) it completely carved and created from the mountain sides. This was a one of my favorite stops on the trip. Here is our "more bars in more places" AT&T commercial. Too bad reception was horrible.

Matera by night, with a long exposure.

Matera by night, with a normal exposure.

That night was our first group dinner, there were about 20 (small) dishes served to us that night, it was amazing. The city of Matera was the sight were much of The Passion of the Christ was filmed, and so Mel Gibson and his crew often stopped at this restaurant.

For dessert we had this giant bowl of fruit for our table. delicious.