Buongiorno Italia

It's been a while, we know. But we have our reasons, like poor wi-fi, tiredness, and um, that sort of stuff. So the ferry from Greece was good, the fact that it left at 9pm rather than 5pm was not. It meant we arrived in Brindisi after 3am and had to walk 2km in the dark and cold through a deserted industrial zone and then wake up the hotel owner to get let in. So yeah, pretty tuckered out the next day for the train ride to Matera where we also arrived late in the day and couldn't find where we wanted to stay so had to stay somewhere expensive cos it was the only place open. It was nice though and we got our sleep sorted, so it worked out well. Matera is famous for the Sassi - an area of cave houses and old churches. It's an incredible rabbit warren of streets and buildings. Read about what unesco has to say about it here. It's staggering what people can build.

Matera

Matera alleys

My James Dean impersonation

So Matera was great, and we found the hotel we wanted for the second night. We ate beautiful smoked mozzarella, delicious salami and cured meats, fabulous bread and excellent pasta. Welcome to Italy. The bread at the local bakery was just gorgeous. Chewy, crusty, flavoury. And cheap. Then it was onward to Naples by bus. We'd read that it is a pretty crazy town and it is. It's full on busy, and sort of grimy and old and crowded. But it is full of life and interesting things. We've eaten pizza at the home of pizza and its good. Very good. And the food in the supermarket is just incredible - the sort of supermarket you dream about. So many breads and cheeses and meats. I haven't uploaded any photos from here yet but it's been rainy so there aren't many anyway. I'll try and put some on in the morning. Tomorrow we're off to Rome for a week. It will be good to stay put for a while, the moving from town to town is the hardest bit - finding the hotel and stuff. Hope all is well at your place.