We awoke this morning with the anticipation of a 5 hour car ride with a crazy Italian driver, and were not at all disappointed with the reality. We left Rome (Pavona) at 0900 this morning to visit Richard’s nonna (grandmother) in Matera. It is usually a 4.5 hour drive, it took us 5.5 once you add delays for traffic, construction, and the occasional cozze (means mussel, but we learned this week it is also a nasty slang for people who drive too slow). I had the backseat to myself so I laid down the majority of the journey, because when I was sitting up I was flying from one side of the backseat to the other. The drive was a lot less scary when I laid down and closed my eyes.
We arrived at Nonna’s at 1430, where lunch was waiting. In Italy it is common to have a very large lunch, similar to what we serve for dinner parties (pasta, meat/veggie, dolce, fruit, caffe). They compensate by having a small breakfast and a small dinner. Nonna prepared Lasagna, followed by braschioli and salad, then lemoncello soaked strawberries, biscotti, and espresso. After this event, I felt like I just had to lay down, which translated into nap time for me, while Richard played a video game. Once we emerged, we started chatting with nonna, surprisingly easy for not speaking the same language. As soon as Richard would say a few words, she would take off and run with it. The next thing I knew she brought out a bunch of pictures, mostly pictures of Rich, Stephen, and Sara Maria had sent over the years, but also old pictures of her family. It was wonderful, I saw a couple of pictures of Richard as a baby, the first time I have ever seen one….another story for another time.
Finally, it was time to see Matera. We went to walk around via del Corso (? I think), this is an area where everyone goes and walks around in the evening, it is filled with shops, gelateria’s, churches, bars, etc… On the way we passed the church where Richard’s grandfather preached…it is now a bar. Then on the other side of the street was Luca and Maria’s elementary school, we took a trip down memory lane I guess. Then I got my first introduction to the Sassi. It is a very old portion of the town that was partially carved out of the stone cliffs, it is straight out of a different century. Have you seen the passion of the Christ? Well the streets of the Sassi were used for the shooting of this film.
After dinner we walked back to the main street, where we met Pierro and Ucho. Pierro lived next door to Nonna when Rich was a kid, so they always played together when they came to visit. We walked about town admiring various views of the Sassi by night; landing in a Gelateria…this was the best one so far! We had giant bowls of gelato with tiny cones sticking out the top. What a wonderful way to end the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment