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Matera
Silent
You walk through the stones of Matera and you have the impression of being in always different places and eras.
We arrive around 7pm, it’s already dark but the roads are illuminated by car headlights snaded in Saturday night traffic. In Piazzetta Pascoli there is a parade to celebrate the beginning of carnival and many people walk while the children throw confetti into the air.
We know that we have to find stairs and follow the signs that lead to Sasso Caveoso. With suitcases it is not easy, but luckily we have organized ourselves: light luggage and comfortable shoes. As we walk down the stairs, we move away from the confusion of the square and approach an almost sacred silence, the one that characterizes the Sassi instead.
The streetlights here are warmer and dim. The silence breaks every now and then with the roar of the water of a fountain or with the end-of-day speeches of some elderly gentleman. When we arrive at our b&b “House of the Sun”, Mr. Felice, polite and nice owner, shows us our room and we are enchanted by the beauty of the view of the illuminated Stones, while the church carved into the rock of Madonna dell’Idris dominates the entire landscape from above.
We could have used more obvious adjectives to describe in a word Matera, more used adjectives such as those related to revenge or its redemption but we liked to emphasize this silence that characterizes the Sassi. But it’s not a continuous silence, laughter and footsteps interrupt it from time to time. Groups of kids flock to the city on this Saturday night. Young people also from other nearby towns have fun in the beautiful clubs dug into the tuff and the more modern ones of the upper city. Yet the landscape always remains so rigorous: a singular scenography, ready to turn into a perfect scenario for any occasion, be it the setting of a film like the many shot here, a kiss, a toast, a melancholy walk.
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