Good 'Old' Italy

Happy 4th of July!!!

What's the 4th without a Cookout?! We didn't have a grill at first, but a family from our Bible study is moving in a month and informed us that grills "don't ship well" so they would like to give us theirs. How sweet?!

We are SO grateful and use the grill regularly, already!

Shout out to the Bargers!

Next... You know what the 4th of July means in Naples Navy Hospital world... a "96!"

James gets 96 hours off work to do as we please!

After days of debating what our traveling options were, we finally decided we didn't want to go far because James is in school and had a paper due the day after his "96" was over. So our "96" was self-shortened to a "72." But a great "72" it was!

On day one, Friday July 1st we packed up our rental car with our buddy Stephen and headed to the East coast (towards the "Zoofari") to our first stop, the little town of Matera. It took us about four hours to get to a place that they say is three hours from Naples. Oops.

Matera is a cute little town, but the part that most interested us was the "Sassi di Matera," or Stones of Matera. In this part of the town, the city was built into the side of the mountain and is said to be similar to what Jerusalem looked like back in Jesus' day. It dates back to the 3rd century B.C.!

First, we checked into our half-cave-half-modern-hotel...

Relaxing after a detour-filled drive...

Cute cave-ish restroom...

Hotel entrance...

Then we walked around a little bit and started to explore. Unfortunately by the time we found the tourist information office it was closed, so we had to find things on our own.

This is set up like a home back in the day would have been. Because they didn't have land, they would have to keep their farm animals in a back section of their homes, and would raise their beds to keep their chickens underneath...

Sounds fun...

Under James feet is how they would collect water- when it rained the water would flow in the hole and into the wells under their homes (the glass is covering it now because it's just for show).

This used to be a small cave-church:

This is an original painting (on the inside of the church) of Jesus being baptized.

After a little more wandering around, we headed out for pizza then back to our cave to sleep...

Goodnight Matera!

On day two we were on our way to the tourist information office to sign up for a tour, but en-route we passed a hiking path that lead to the other hill (where they filmed the crucifixion portion of The Passion of the Christ) and decided "why not hike over there?!" We had been talking about finding a way over there the night before- so now we were off!

First we had to hike down...

Then across a stream...

and back up!

Finally, an hour later we made it to the top!

Only to have to turn around and do it all over to get back to our car.

So who's idea was this?!

Almost there...

Needless to say, afterwards we were quite sweaty and exhausted so we hopped right in the car, turned the A/C on full blast and headed to our Trullo in Alberobello!

our room(s?)...

Trulli (Plural for Trullo) are little peasant homes which were build so that they could easily be torn down in case the kings men come to tax them. The king said all new building would be taxed, and the poor couldn't afford it so with these, they could tear them down to avoid the taxes...

Must have been some steep taxes! How sad!

After getting freshened up from our earlier hike, we grabbed some lunch (at the only open, over priced restaurant), got some delicious gelato where we met the sweetest Italian girl who spoke English, Dutch and German, then went on a little tour of the city:

I loved all the cute little homes!

There are two parts of the city, one that is kept as the old town where business aren't allowed to occupy, and then the newer city where they are. They all are in trullo houses, but there is more action in the "new" part of town, so that's where we hung out for the night and grabbed some dinner and more gelato.

The coolest sand sculpture thing I've ever seen was in the gelateria...

We were really close to the beach, so the next day we first stopped by the one and only two story trullo (owned by a Doctor) and then spent the day on the beautiful Mediterranean before heading home for the weekend so James could do homework.

Another gorgeous drive through the countryside...

And that's all for our Independence Day "72" trip!

XOXO!