We packed so much in today. Yesterday was another late night (and today we didn't get back to our Trullo until after 11!) so we got a little late of a start. By time we got to the cafe there was only one donut left and they are seriously good and for only 80 cents and 90 cent cappuccinos we aren't making them at our Trullo! The nice cafe lady gave us some bread with Nutella since obviously 1 donut and 5 people wouldn't work. After breakfast we enjoyed some pool time but it was a bit windy so we decided to go explore since it wasn't super hot out.
Our first town of the day was Alberobello which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to a lot of Trulli. We have heard its become super touristy but worth a visit still and I think I would agree.
We walked around and checked out town, got a little wet but the rain didn't last long. We bought cherries from a cute man and ate a good lunch with a touristy price of 7 euro per Spritz (which I bought because walking around in the heat with 4 kids is no joke!). The kids loved the prosciutto and melon. We enjoyed gelato (of course) and then hit the road for the next adventure.
Cutest little back lanes.
Lunch was super expensive but really good!
Your average Spritz in our small town is 1.50-2.50 Euro and at this place it was 7 Euro!!!
Trullo Church
The tops of the Trullo have different symbols on them which have different meanings.
I have no clue what these kids are doing in this picture.
We were a walking freak show on this trip! Every time we would walk by people you could hear them count "uno, due, tre, quattro!"
The kids bought a bag of cherries from this sweet man for 2 Euro..... it was a great little snack.
I can't believe how big this little girl is getting!
Our drive to Matera was beautiful, it was the perfect time for the kids to take a nap. We didn't find any gas stations in Southern Italy that took our NATO coupons and gas was SO EXPENSIVE!!! I appreciate our gas coupons so much more now that we had to pay out of pocket for it this trip.
Our second town for the day was Matera. It is a town that has been on my to-do list while living here in Italy for a long time! Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and where Mel Gibson filmed the movie The Passion of the Christ. When we first got there it was different than what I was expecting. I thought we would just roll up on the Sassi (historical district) but it was a very modern Italian town and parking was a nightmare. We finally found a parking spot and since I can never tell how much money I am putting into the parking machines we paid to park for like 2 full days (since we were only staying for a few hours, we were totally covered!). While we were paying for parking there was a super sketchy cat walking around that appeared to have something seriously wrong with it. The kids became obsessed and scared of that cat and talked about it the entire way home.
So after parking we started to walk toward the Sassi district. For some reason this day our kids decided to play with some random cheetah and it was awesome because they never complained about walking!
The town is a normal Italian town and then all of a sudden you walk over to this overlook and BAM there is the Sassi district. It is like nothing I have ever seen before!
We found it!
You had to walk down into the Sassi and the rocks were so incredibly slippery!
I think the entire time we were there and walking around we just kept talking about how unreal it was.
Across from where we were there are caves that are built into the side of the mountain were people lived up until the 1950's. They didn't have running water or electricity and were extremely poor. The government actually went in and forced them to leave and relocated them into different parts of the city. Many of the cave homes have now been turned into actual houses and hotels. I wish we would have been able to go over and tour them but we just didn't have time and the kids were already pretty maxed out.
We took so many pictures.
Like I said the kids played with that cheetah all day!
This is one of my favorite pictures of Finley.
I love the man hanging out of the window in this house.
Caught Finley face planting in this picture.
After walking around town we found a nice spot for dinner. When we sat down Michael Buble's song that Dave and I danced to at our wedding was playing, we knew dinner was going to be great! I had an amazing Spritz and the kids had some delicious pizza followed by free gelato, they were pumped!
The city at night was so beautiful.
We were laughing because they still had Christmas decorations up. I think they must have left them up for so long they just didn't see the reason in taking them down! Southern Italy for you I guess.
There was a really good gelato place in the city so we stopped to get some on our way out and the kids said "but we already had gelato today twice!" Third times the charm today kids.
We saw this group of teenagers playing kick the can. I love Italy and how much slower life is here.
It was a full day but it was a very memorable one! We had a great day and will cherish these memories for a lifetime!
Southern Italy is good, life is good!
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