Sunday, October 25, 2015
Our hotel, the Palazzo
Gattini, was formed by connecting a number of the small cliff-side homes in the
center of town, and it was lovely. We
had a particularly nice room with a patio and a pool:
We began our day with a guided
walk through the hillside town which dates back to Neolithic days. Some of the caves were natural and some of
the homes were dug into the soft rock.
The views were spectacular:
The town sits on one side
of a very deep narrow valley:
You can go down the side
of the valley to the floor, ford the stream, and climb up the other side. We
did not do this, but in this photo you can see the switchback trail on the
other side of the valley:
From the city side of the
valley you could see the caves on the opposite side:
There is a museum of
sorts, showing how the 15,000 occupants of the city lived in the caves along
with their animals into the mid-20th c.:
Sanitation was poor,
living conditions were primitive, but the city was fully occupied until in 1952
the Italian government deemed the city unfit for human habitation in such
numbers and in such a lifestyle. The
city was evacuated with government reimbursement for the people. In the 1980’s rehabilitation of the living units
was begun, and people began moving back in.
The current population of the old city is 3000. The city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1993, and will be the 2019 European Cultural Capital. It’s interesting that the area is quite
reminiscent of Cappadocia in Turkey, and indeed, it had Byzantine monks settle
here and form a monastery in 1952.
After the walking tour we
needed some refreshment, and, although I’ve not mentioned gelato as often as we
ate it, once again we found delicious Italian ice cream. This served as our lunch as we anticipated a
large dinner tonight. Do we look guilty?
In the late afternoon we
were driven to the other side of the valley where we began a walk along the
edge of the heights overlooking the valley:
The views of the city
across the valley were wonderful:
There are caves here with
frescos of unknown age:
We went back to the hotel,
washed up, and we began dinner at a wonderful local restaurant at 8:00. We finished, after innumerable courses and
much wine, close to 11:00. I cannot
imagine the calorie count.
Fascinating--such a different Italy than the Italy of the big cities. Many of the features you've mentioned seem to be specific to the local weather, agriculture, influences from overseas cultures, and so on. The masseria, the conical stone huts, the special big bread, the Eastern Orthodox churches... I've previously heard that people in Italy tend to think of themselves in terms of their region or city or town, not the nation-state. Your blog gives me a more concrete sense of this.
ReplyDeleteInteresting city - very different from Tuscany! Speaking of gelato, we rated the gelato from Siena the best (creamiest) from our travels, but it was a delight to sample it wherever we were -- La Dolce Vita!!!
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