G's Travelogy (Uncut, Uncensored, Unrated): Four-part harmony: Bass, Italy 24-27 Dec 2013 (Part 3/4) [Rome, Matera, Alberobello]

Rome is one of the best cities to spend Xmas in Italy, and by best, I think online sources take into account the happening-ness, decor and ambience. Well there's also Naples, Sicily and Venice. But we, I actually, wanted to stay away from Naples after hearing all the negative comments from my friends and colleagues who had gone to Italy as well especially about how safe it made them feel - like they're constantly being watched. Thank god I felt nothing of that sort during our Honeymoon, except perhaps the roles may have been reversed since I was on the constant "watch" for any dubious characters.

Furthermore, Rome was along our route to Matera, and we played it in such a way that we would be able to spend xmas in Rome before heading out, then back to Rome again before taking a flight back.

And so we did... it was late when we reached Rome, cos we kinda "snowballed" the days over as we would usually spend daylight at one city before heading to the next for our sleepover - and I had expected to countdown to Xmas in Vatican City... pure nativity awesomeness! Or so I thought.

The journey there, yeah, it was a journey alright, from the train station where our accomdation was conveniently located, took us about 45mins-1hour give and take, considering we stopped by tourist attractions such as the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Castel Sant'Angelo (Castle shaped like a ship) and Piazza Navona (night market with carnival stalls set up) along the way. Think we might have passed the Palazzo del Quirinale (where the Italian President resides) and other famous attractions along the way, but they didn't quite register since we were on an important "mission", to stand amidst a huge crowd right smack in the middle of St. Peter's Square (a ginormous square where the St. Peter's Basilica sits, and St. Peter's Basilica is one of the world's biggest churches) with the Pope standing on the world famous balcony counting down to the annual celebration of the birth of christ.

Pantheon

Piazza Navona

Castel Sant'Angelo (Located near Vatican City)

Guess I must have been in my own world when I realised, walking down this long stretch of street brightly litted by what looked like obelisk-streetlamps, that the "action" all ended by 10.30pm. We were, just in time.... just in time to watch people strolling out of the Basilica cause the "show" was over.

*rewind*

There's a saying that if you were to backface the Trevi Fountain and toss a coin into it (supposedly with your right hand over your left shoulder), you'll return to Rome. 2 coins means you'll return and fall in love, and 3, you'll return, find love and marry. Thanks to this "legend", Trevi Fountain is probably one of the "richest" fountains in the world... and my dear, contributed to it twice!

She did throw a coin once into the fountain many years back, and certainly, the legend... IS TRUE!! She was back in Rome! Of course, pretending to believe that (or maybe she was truly convinced of its magical powers), she threw yet another coin into the fountain when we were there. So would we be going back, wait a min, she, not me, I didn't throw the coin... so would she be going back to Rome in future? Only time will tell...

But you know what, knowledge, hurts. After researching and reading (right now) the "actual" description of how one should throw rightfully throw a coin into the fountain, I realised how blindly we humans are affected by confirmation biasness. We all wanted to believe that it "worked", but in essence, it didn't. Not sure how many coins my dear threw into the fountain on her first trip there, but in "theory", she should have thrown 3 coins in. But I'm assuming she didn't, which I could be wrong.

But, not just that, she had to throw the coin with her right hand over her left shoulder, the precise way to do it for the "magic" to work. Did she do that? Unlikely. I'm calculating the probability to less than 0.2, which I'll soon find out after she reads my blog and grumbles to me about how "silly" I portray her. Keke~ well, dear, if you're reading this now, know that it isn't your "silliness" that amuses me, but your cutsiness which does. =) Ok, my sixth sense tells me you guys (do anyone actually read this other than me, myself, I and my wife?) are getting goosebumps so I'll fast forward.. er.. one more fact before I move on.

Fact: There's a syndicate of polaroid photographers moving around the fountain hoping to cheat a quick buck or 2 and their conversation starter is "Can I help you take a photo?" REJECT them immediately, if not you'll be punching yourself hard like a semi-drunk couple we saw who didn't reject their offer, and who "willingly" let them take a polaroid photo of them. When the photo developed, the boisterous petite lady was making a light-hearted fuss about looking for that photographer... and we realised later that the photo only showed both of them, NO FOUNTAIN. It was such a joke, even to the curious onlookers like us, but thankfully the tipsy couple let the photographer off after he took another photo of them (rather reluctantly as he was defending himself when they managed to find him).

So don't be conned by any "kind souls" who offers their help, choose your help wisely... and most of the tourists were seen asking other tourists to help take a photo of them, a wise choice. We, on the other hand, were even wiser, we selfied. Safe, guaranteed satisfaction cos we could take all the time in the world to take the "perfect" shot.

The Pantheon, proved to be quite a worthwhile stopover with it's majestically high brick ceiling. And though we didn't manage to enter it, we met with a friendly duo of ladies who informed us that according to the news, the Vatican City had like 200,00 thousand people gathered there already.

Holy... 200,000? Anyways, be it 200k, 500k or even a million, nothing was going to stop us from going there...

*fast forward*

And so, was 200K pax really that intimidating? It was a ... joke... It made me realised how freaking packed Singapore really is. A Xmas countdown I went about 15yrs back was 5 times more sardine-packed as what was before my eyes.

At the Vatican, at the square to be specific, I could even walk "balonglong" into the middle of the square without hitting anyone. Ok, maybe it's an exaggeration, but it was seriously "over-rated". If that was 200K pax, then I think Singapore's countdown parties have like 1.5 million people present.

And did the happening scenario I envisioned unfold right before my very eyes? Nooopppppeeee. All we saw were people leaving, and those hanging around, were mostly as clueless as us.

There was however a sudden rave of cheering, "PAPA! PAPA!", and before we knew it, people started climbing over fences, running nearer to the Basilica, looking u at the balcony and "willing" the Pope to come out and say perhaps a "Goodnight" to them... but no. There was nothing. Not even a dove flew out, only smartly dressed Vatican guards (handsome they were) shooing us "home" repeatedly saying "Papa needs to sleep, go home, come back tomorrow".

While it was rather disappointing, the adrenaline of climbing over a metal fence (of course we joined in the fun) and dashing towards the Basilica like the others was quite the memory maker. The experience happened in slow-mo (in my mind), drama rama I'm telling you...

That night, we hardly had any sleep because by the time we returned to our hotel room, it was already 1-ish. The next morning's train ride to Matera, was the longest yet.

St. Peter's Square

~the next day~

To get to Matera, we had to take a train from Rome to Bari, and from Bari, there was supposedly a local train or bus to take us to Matera. However, since we travelled on Xmas day, we were only given the option of taking a local bus which was supposed to take us like 2 hours to get to Matera. However, after reaching Bari, we had so much trouble finding the bus stop and verifying that the bus we were to take did indeed stop us at our location, we eventually settled for a 100 euro taxi ride! Yes, the cost was insane because it was a holiday. Wasn't exactly a good time to travel. If there's anything I've learnt, is that we should stay put at one place during any public holidays because transport would inevitably be affected.

When we finally got to our much-awaited cave-hotel, the kinkily-named Sexantio Le Grotto della Civita, I... ... ...flipped.

It was so depressingly dark that I was so tempted to make us our very own campfire. Yes, that indeed went through my mind. Later that night, I even found ants all over my bed... we had to bathe using a miserable tap and almost like Cleopatra, we had to use a freaking heavy ceramic vase to bath ourselves. Only thing lacking was the milk. Simply put, it was the most impractical accommodation that I had ever put myself into.

It was an interesting experience, but not great, and I would definitely not wanna stay there again.

But that doesn't extend to Matera. Matera, was indeed well worth the long tedious ride and it was so beautiful it made the 100euros taxi ride worth it (though we could have gotten it cheaper if we went on another day).

And that night, was magical, fairytale dreamland magical. And there was not a single beggar or street vendor along the streets to spoil the mood. The veil of suspended condensate spared no effort to magically shroud one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. Streets lined with xmas decor made from recycled materials; such as a bottled xmas tree, and many interesting out-of-place modernized exhibits lined the streets; cycling dynamo-generated xmas tree, nativity light show cast on Matera Cathedral of the Madonna della Bruna and St. Eustace (Matera's most prominent Cathedral, aka Duomo Matera) reminiscence of Singapore's night museum, and there was even a fountain along the main street blasting the music of Celine Dion's christmas carols. It was so magical we kept slipping in and out of reality, till we reached the point that we no longer knew which "reality" we were in...

Perhaps it happened too near to the end of my trip, that I kinda "forgot" the scene, but thinking back, I believe that one holistic scene is on par with my top picturesque mental moment of Neuschwanstein Castle overlooking the Swiss Alps.

Duomo Matera

The next day we headed out to Alberobello early in the morning, and spent a good 2 hours there. The trip there took an hour (by cab) the trip back, yet another, so that totaled around 4 hours to hit the other nearby UNESCO heritage site.

Alberobello is famous for its trulli houses, white colored bricky little huts which were erected back in the olden days for locals to avoid paying tax. That's because the trulli houses were made simply from stacking small stones, most characteristic of its dome roofs, and the ease of demolishing made them excellent temporary shelters.

There is a particular street which has mostly converted its trulli houses into souvenir shops, with eager (desperately eager) shopowners welcoming any passing tourists with open mouths "come in and have a look, no obligations", they say. Thankfully, it's true... Despite so, we bought at least an item or so from every single shop we entered (3 in total).

The stuff weren't too expensive, it could have been, especially with the more intricately stacked trulli houses figurines which according to the locals, require more expertise and effort to assembly. Therefore we kinda splurged on the souvenirs under the subconscious influence of the pressure of time.

Then it happened, as it we were too jolly and carefree, the weather gods decided to dampen our moods with a downpour and blasting winds. Gearing up (by putting on our hoodies and zipping up our outer coats), we braved through the rain and carried on exploring the different parts of town.

I don't recall seeing any street signs there, but it's a relatively small town which only a dory fish could get lost in. Most of the smaller roads led to a common square. And the square, Piazza del Pollo made an excellent landmark.

As a side mission, we were on the lookout for interesting trulli houses such as the Siamese twins trullis and a 2-floored trulli by the name of Trullo Sovrano (biggest trulli). We found the latter, but not the former and also checked out the Church of Saint Anthony, a truly-trulli-church.

While there didn't seem like much we could do, Alberobello was more visually stunning than I had imagined and even though you'd have seen it all in the photos, you definitely wouldn't have felt it all. It was the "cutest" sight any "avid explorer" would have wished for. And on each of the dome roofs (mostly actually, not all), there were different symbols painted on them. According to folklore and superstition, in general they helped ward off evil spirits, with each symbol having different purposes.

Church of Saint Anthony

Trullo Sovrano

Getting back to Matera, we were once again treated with damp hospitality, this time the weather gods spared no efforts to beat us to the floor. Lugging our "fatty" barang barang, we tried to navigate our way to our 2nd accommodation. It was a rather last minute change in our itinerary as we had initially intended to spend the night at Alberobello, but decided just before heading off for our honeymoon that we didnt wanna take the risk of being stranded or wasting too much time on traveling - well it turned out the cab ride saved us a good deal of time amd allowed us to cover more ground than we had expected.

Matera Cuccu - only seen in Matera (local lucky charm)

Hotel Sassi wasn't exactly easy to navigate to, despite its seemingly simple directions. It's in the middle of the stacked houses, and finding that one impt route up (or down, depending on where you're coming from) wasn't a breeze in the stony park. Every stone house looked the same, the only landmark, is the only one which couldn't provide much help, the Duomo Matera isolated on the top of the hill.

After finally finding our hotel, we dried ourselves up a bit before exploring the by-then darkening historical centre of Matera - Sassi. In fact, when I mention Matera above, I'm actually referring to Sassi. Matera is much bigger than that, comprising of Sassi (old, ancient part) and the new town. That night, we saw another side of Matera, the artsy side. It was less bustling than the previous misty night, which also meant visibility was much better, and that allowed us to better explore the area.

We came across many interesting exhibits housed in mini-chapels and even came across a hidden gem where local artists/sculpturists openly laid out their artworks for display. There was no selling, just pure appreciating. They were mainly landscape figurines with different depictions of the nativity. It was there that we met 2 friendly local artists, who struck a 1.5-sided conversation with us, because both of them were just as bad with English as we were with Italian. But their amicability and magnimosity will always be remembered by us; one of the artists took out a cabbage decorative from his exhibition panel and gave it to my dear.

The next morning, we pounced out like attractions-deprived canines sniffing out the "gems" of Matera, making sure we left no stones unturned - Park of the Murgia Matera (archaeological park of the rock churches of Matera); Casa Grotto (cave houses - unlike our authentic cave hotel, it charged tourists for entering, played a track of commentary suited to your language, was brightly lit and was filled with "fake" authentic ancient furniture one would normally see in stone houses back in those days [btw, there's more than one "Cave House" attraction in Sassi]; the Church of Santa Maria de Idris (a cave church with faded frescoes on the peeling inside walls with a simple cross erected on the top like some lightning conductor); Piazza and Church of St. Peter Caveoso (huge church at the base of the Santa Maria de Idris); Saint Lucia alle Malve (rock church of the first female monastic Benedictine settlement - the same peeling interior stone walls with several frescoes here and there) and the Convicinio of St. Anthony (4-rock churches side by side, the entrance fee for this one is different).

That pretty much summed up the main sights in Matera, and despite the identical looking rock churches and commercialised "cave houses", I found the attractions in Sassi to be the most down to earth...