Matera

Yes I know, I said I was going to post on Friday, please forgive my tardiness. A close friend of mine is going through a bit of a crisis and I put some things temporarily aside (this blog being one of them) so that I might be there to provide her with all the things a woman needs during a crisis: a friend, flowers to cheer her up and a few stiff cocktails to mellow her out.

Anyway back to Italy: Remember when I said that Rome was a romantic city? Well Matera may very well be the embodiment of romance. First of all it has an amazing history. The area is renowned for it’s Sassi (the rock-hewn caves that were dug into the calcareous walls of a spectacularly beautiful, deep gorge) that have been inhabited by humans for around 350,000 years. You can see evidence of the people who lived there during the Paleolithic times, the Ancient Roman times, the Baroque period and so on. People (including the Romans and early Christians) lived in caves and when the priests and monks took up residence in the city they turned many of the caves into churches and painted beautiful Byzantine and Latin frescoes on the walls. If you look carefully at the arched doorways that were carved out of the rock you can see fossils from millions of years ago. But that’s just what makes the city historically interesting. I haven’t really gotten to the romance part.

All the homes in Matera are built out of the same rock that literally comes out of the mountain. At night you can see the glow of the lights from within the structures and it is a breathtaking sight. It’s like walking back in time. I actually ate at a restaurant that was built in 1100 AD. And then there was my B&B, the Sax Barisano. It was truly enchanting. The minute I walked into the room and I saw the domed stone ceiling, the private courtyard, the patio with the view of the 1200 year old church and the king sized bed that was placed on a loft that could be reached by a rustic staircase with an iron cast banister I literally gasped. It’s too bad Brenda and I aren’t lesbians because the room was obviously made for lovers.

As for the Woman’s fiction Festival, it was wonderful. I spoke on a panel that first day with 6 other authors in a beautifully appointed and very modern looking auditorium that was basically a converted underground man-made cave. During the following four days of the festival I was interviewed by many different Italian newspaper and television reporters (with the help of a translator). It’s odd being interviewed via translator. You are talking to the reporter, making eye contact with them and the like all the while knowing that he or she has no idea what you’re talking about and won’t know until the person standing to your right says it in Italian (and you just have to trust that the translator got it right). It took a while for me to get used to it but by the time I reached Milan I had it all figured out…sort of.

At one point during the conference Brenda and I met a tour guide/teacher Michele (pronounced Mic-Kay-Lay, and yes, it’s a guy’s name). Michele is one of those people who you can’t not like. He was an economics major and graduated at the top of his class but despite the urging of his teachers he chose the “life of romance.” Meaning he wanted to be in Matera, teaching people about its history and working to protect it from developers who would level some of the historic buildings in order to make room for modern tourist attractions that are cheaper to maintain. He is also a piano teacher and his dream is to be able to own one of the caves that are, oddly enough, available for purchase. The caves overlooking the gorge boast amazing views of the mountains and skyline. If Michele had his way he would convert one into a sort of piano bar. “Can you imagine?” He asked, his eyes lit up with enthusiasm. “People could come and sip wine and I could play the piano while gazing up at the moon.”

Michele, Brenda and I became instant friends (and I’m delightled to say that Michele and I have continued our friendship via email). He is a devote Catholic and when he found out I was Jewish he was thrilled. “This is fantastic; you know our Pope, he apologized to you.”

I laughed and nodded, “I have heard that. So I guess we can be friends now.”

“Yes, yes, together we can save the world!”

I’m not sure I follow his logic (and I suspect that a bit was lost in the translation) but I was willing to go with it. Basically I couldn’t stop thinking about how cool it would be to listen to someone play classical piano in a dwelling that dated back hundreds of thousands of years and was once inhabited by the ancient Romans and later Byzantine monks.

I could go on and on about Matera but I actually have to do some work on my upcoming Sophie books. I promise to tell you about the last part of my trip in my next blog which I will write by night Tuesday at the latest—honest!

Ciao!

Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
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