We picked up our car today for the first of our road trips. Max dropped us off at Brindisi airport and we drove to our first stop, Matera.

The drive to Matera was only a couple of hours and during the journey we went from the flat olive groves of Puglia to the rolling, green hills of Calabria. Driving into Matera was nothing special, the buildings the usual ugly 70's style architecture which is typical of Italy's larger cities, particularly their "new" towns.

We parked our car and checked into our accommodation, the Monaco Bianco. By now it was almost 3:00pm and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, just a couple of pasticiotti we lifted from the breakfast room in Lecce. So we asked our concierge for some recommendations for lunch and went straight to a restaurant called Trattoria de Caveoso. This restaurant was in the old part of town, where all of the buildings are excavated into the rock of the mountain. The houses, restaurants, etc. are known as "sassi" and are facades built at the front of caves dug into the mountain. We walked into the restaurant and were basically standing in a cave. The lunch was great. Lidia had a tasty orecchiette dish and I had a traditional pasta dish with fried breadcrumbs, anchovies, dried fried chilis and turnip tops.

After lunch we went to one of the piazzas at the top of the hill to join a walking tour of the city. The piazza had a balcony overlooking the whole old town of Matera. The view took our breath away. Matera is one of the oldest continually habitated city in the world. It is thought that the city dates back to the Palaeolithic period 10,000 years BC. A valley separates the buildings of the "sassi" from caves that were literally occupied by the first cavemen in Italy 12,000 years ago. That's old.

The walking tour took us to caves that were the original churches with frescoes still painted on the cave walls. There were two Greg's on the tour asking lots of stupid questions, so Lidia had the day off. One of them asked what musical instruments the local people played in the caveman days. I wanted to shoot myself.

Anyway, the tour finished with a tasting of some of the local products, including a local snack made from drying sweet red peppers then frying them. The same kind I had on my pasta for lunch. They were delicious.

*** Blog hijacked by Lidia: If I may add my contribution, I believe there may have been parts which may have been missed or not covered properly. We had both agreed and decided to go out for a very light dinner of grilled veggies for dinner. Scott, after perusing the restaurants menu, got very excited at the roast on offer instead of the usual pasta and ordered a roast lamb and potatoes which he enjoyed with a bottle of local wine "Aglianico del Vulture" which was recommended to us. To clarify, he finished the whole bottle on his own! He does struggle with percentages and apparently because I tasted the wine, that equates with me helping him drink half the bottle. Anyway, he enjoyed his meal and evening which is all that matters and makes me very happy, although with 5 months to go it's obvious that one of us is going to have to step up and be the responsible adult. Yay, if you're reading this he's actually let me contribute to the blog or he was too drunk to proof read it before posting it! *** End of Hijacking ***

The next day we woke early and went for another walk around Matera. You never get sick of the views of this town. It is ancient and you feel as though you have stepped back 10,000 years into the past.

Then we packed up and jumped back in the car for our drive to Bari. On the way we stopped off at a small town called Altamura. This place is famous for their bread. As you enter the town there is an actual sign that reads "Welcome to Altamura, the city of bread" They have bakeries that have used the same ovens for centuries. The town was in the midst of an annual medieval festival where all of the locals dress up in medieval clothing and they have flags hanging throughout the city.

We stopped off at a bakery that opened in 1423 and have been using the same oven for almost 600 years. Then we went to another bakery recommended to us by Max that has been open for 400 years. On the way, Lidia was walking behind me. There was a light drizzle and the ground was slippery and covered in moss. I heard her say "wooooooops" and when I turned around she was sitting on her bum with her leg twisted behind her back. She said "I'm down, I'm down!". After exclaiming at the top of my voice with some choice expletives I helped her up and luckily nothing was broken. Lidia insists it was a very graceful decent and thankfully only has a graze down her right hand and slimy stain on her jeans. We then hurried on to the bakery where we bought some focaccia that was super-delicious and a packet of fagottini amarena con ciliegie which are biscuits with cherry filling.

After buying some of the fried chillies for the car ride, we made our way on to Bari.