Matera at night.

 Matera at night. Today exceptionally a post without plushies. They are well and with me, no worries. 

Matera is one of the place with longest continuous human settlement, maybe 5000 years or longer. It is built from some kind of limestone, called tudo, which is plentiful here. The old part sit on sides of deep gorge. Many houses and later churches have been carved into stone walls. The old town turned into a working class slum and was deemed unhealthy and evacuated in the beginning of the 20th century. Lately, it has been developed for upper middle class and tourists. 

Not many tourists today. There are hundreds closes bar and restaurants. Many places are ongoing renovations. Only places frequented by locals are open. That’s fine for me. 

My hotel is in the new part of the town called piano, but only 250 meters from the old part, or Sassi. The hotel is simple and cheap, only 34€ per day including breakfast. 

I ran headlong into a glass door of a bookstore. My nose took quite a hit, but was not broken. Neither did the door. I am a bit accident prone. The locals got worried but I said: no worrries, my nose is unbreakable!