Head over heel

As you have surmised, we have made it to the heel of Italy, well really the instep, but only a shoe salesperson would care. We bade our farewells to Patsy and Doug this afternoon in Matera. I think Doug was glad to get rid of us as we drove him to despair and up a one-way dead end skinny street. After completing a 52 point turn, he was finally able to make his way out of the rabbit warren that is  Matera. It's built on the side of a gorge, with many buildings built into the Rock. Our hotel room has a cave roof and tomorrow we will be going down to the cistern below for a swim. 

As usual, Ray got his days mixed up and we arrived for our biking tour one day early. Fortunately, the hotel had a spare room, and now we get to enjoy the amazing beauty of this place for an extra day. Our first mission was to find the bike shop. We nearly didn't make it as this place truly is a rabbit warren of stairs and tiny alley ways. Mission accomplished, we set off to find a gelateria. We did manage to find a cafe in the sun, next to a big band that was entertaining the crowd in the square. Quite pleasant. Gelaterias are hard to find here, so we made do with some chocolate.

We were very excited to discover a cork screw in our room, as we have been travelling around with a bottle of wine and no means to open it. Damn. Just realised that P&D have the nuts. Oh well, it is off to taste the bread and antipasto of the region. Apparently, Matera bread is world renowned. Ray can't get enough of that Italian pane. 

Our first day on the bike involves 72kms and 400m of up. So looking forward to it!

ciao for now, Brenda and the travel guide.