Matera – Nope! Gravina

This is how I want the title to look: Matera Gravina I spend waaay too much time trying to format the title. Not happening. I move on.

We decide we are going to check out that little orange train station today. We’re not even sure it really is a station. We first have our coffees and make our way to the main train station grocery, Despar, to get a sandwich. There are no sandwiches in the cooler, so we get some meat, cheese, oranges, chips, water, and a couple of rolls labeled puccia – (aha! We have seen puccia several times – if I plug it into the translator it still says puccia – we are deducing it means sandwich – not like panini which are hot and pressed).

Ready for whatever our day throws at us, we head over to the orange building. It IS a train station. We can get to Matera from there. (Matera is a city on a rocky outcrop in the region of Basilicata with a complex of cave dwellings carved into the mountainside. Evacuated in 1952 due to poor living conditions. It is a UNESCO World Heritage sight).

We check out the train station. It has two tracks. We look at the timetable and see that we can get to Matera. It appears that it takes two hours. We purchase some tickets from a machine. The train is not electric and runs on diesel. The fumes are quite intense at times. It is a well-utilized train though with many! stops.

Two hours later, we get to what? Gravina. Matera still seems to be an hour further yet. We finally deduce that we needed to transfer trains at the last station. Gravina is the end of the line. So, we will be heading back to the last station in a few. We discuss whether we would like to change trains and still head to Matera. We consult google directions. It seems like the Matera train will not leave for another hour yet. And then the trip to Matera. At this point, we have 4 hours of train rides without transferring. We opt to stay on the train and head back.

We get to the previous station, and there is an announcement. Cambia, Matera. (change, Matera). Well, at least that mystery is solved. We laugh at ourselves and retrace the steps that got us into this situation. We tuck away the knowledge for future journeys. We enjoyed our travels anyway. Back to Bari, we disembark, find a park and eat our sandwiches in the (weak) sunshine.

We stop and have a macchiato. If you remember, that is a teeny tiny cup of espresso with some teeny tiny foamed milk on top. We do some dinner shopping and head home for aperitivo on the terrace.

There is a PaNNTOA social that I would like to attend. It is at 6:30 pm Pacific Time, which is 2:30 a.m. here. If I’m awake, I’ll join in. I promise Jim I’ll just use the chat feature rather than talk so I won’t wake him up. Well, it didn’t matter, as I slept straight through the social anyways. You cannot have your cake (be in Europe) and eat it too (attend zoom socials at 2:30 am).

paleremo presto