Jones

One side of the mountain was sunny and the other cold at first light. By the time we got out for a proper walk it was grey but warm on both sides. The car park we overnighted in was the trail head for several walks round the mountains but mainly for the Via Sassi Stones in Matera.

The Sassi are not merely old pokey up stone outcrops. Well, they are but also people were living in caves here thousands of years before Rome was founded, making Matera one of Europe’s oldest living cities. Sadly the troglodyte dwellings have very particular opening hours which don’t include 9am on Fridays in May.

From the Matera to Dozza which is a lovely hilltop medieval village that holds a Biennial of the Painted Wall- for over half a century the village has invited artists to paint murals on the walls of the village. As an experiment in art and urban regeneration it seems to be working. The village is far from run down and there is art everywhere. Sadly the art itself isn’t very good. It feels a bit like they let a bunch of sixth form art students loose. We did get a very nice piandini to eat in the little village square though. Herewith my favourites:

Our stop for the night is slightly North on the banks of the Valle di Commanchio the only survivor of a huge network of lagoons that used to spread across the Northern Adriatic coast. They were industrialised in the middle ages – particularly around Commanchio to farm eels. Obviously we are now on the lookout for a slap up eel dinner.

The lagoon is a weird place. We went for a run along an ithsmus between the tow lagoons. It’s full of flamingoes, day tripped cyclists (and runners!) but also rows of broken down eel fishing huts that are probably available on Air B&B (no all male parties thanks).

I wish I’d got a photo of the flamingoes but iPhone camera lenses aren’t up to it. Here’s what it looked like:

Back at Jones we played Gingham again, two games infact which came out evens. Dinner was a stir fry concoction if I had to give it a cuisine I’d say Thaipanese… by way of Harvester. Still, it was yummy.