How are you, South Italy?
Written by Mia November 26, 2014
Stones were so warm that I could not wake up
It is the entrance of Alberbello
Special roof that Alberbello has!
Such cute souvenirs are! they represents each house
Old Sassi scene in daytime
Bascilica in the edge of old Sassi
Moon and Duomo church are beautiful in nignt
The sun sets in Matera
Clean and white village
narrow road makes exotic atmosphere!
narrow road makes exotic atmosphere!
Bari’s small port which was calm and pretty
We met a gentleman fishing in the coast of Bari
Road was almost empty!
Narrow but beautiful beach in Polignano
WOWWWW!
Time flies that it is already 5th week and I finished the first travel weekend. Most of CIMBA students go to other European countries during travel weekends, but I and my friends’ goal is to visit all parts of Italy in this semester. This time, we went to the southern Italy; Bari, Matera, Alberbello, and Polignano. We have chosen these places because they are not really famous tourist attraction but small cities that are full of Italian culture.
Bari, which is relatively a bigger city than the others we visited this time, is one of main port cities to connect other nation to Italy. For example, there is the famous ferry connection from Bari to Croatia.
The clean, coast-side road was not busy. Even though there wasn’t a crosswalk, we could easily across the road to see the coast closer.
We met a gentleman who was fishing on the road which was new to me. When we passed him, he caught a fish at the same time, so we were able to see the fish and took this picture. Wow! It is the fish from the Mediterranean!
This is a small port in Bari. I was so excited to see those cute boats and smell the sea…!
Downtown of Bari was clean and exotic that the buildings were neat and white. I heard villages near the Mediterranean build the village with white stone since they have strong sunlight. It was true!
Next destination was Sassi, Matera. This village is famous for its beautiful scenery in night and it is the village built on canyon. This place is also filming site of the movie ‘The Passion of the Christ’.
Actually, Matera is the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. Sassi village has both old and new sections and the old section of Sassi has these beautiful sights. What the interesting thing was that Sassi has very different atmosphere in daytime and night. It was extremely exotic.
Alberbello, which is known for the Smurf village, is another small city. This place made us feel as if in a fairy tale. The weather was so beautiful to make the view even more beautiful. I usually do not buy souvenirs while traveling but in Alberbello, there were various kinds of souvenirs so I ended up buying one. Alberbello’s special stone is used to making these souvenirs which is exactly the same material as the houses.
For the last destination, Polignano is located at the heel of a boot (map of Italy) which is one of very edge part. This place is not really well-known to tourists but I‘ve read in tour book, saying ‘Polignano is a popular spot for Italian beach lover’. Since it is also a port city as Bari, the beach is not broad but it pleased us so much.
The sea water shines and so transparent that I could see the bottom whatever the depth was. Air was fresh. Sun was shining. Stones were warmed up. Everything was perfect!! Even it was already passed mid October, the temperature of the sea was just adequate for swimming.
This trip to south Italy was full of beautiful and exotic scenes. The proverb says, ‘A loaf of bread is better than the song of many birds’, but I didn’t feel much hunger during the trip. It was like I became full as I saw these impressive sights. I learned another lesson again.
