Life...The Vivere

WELCOMING 2017 

DECEMBER 31, 2016 

NEW HOUSE

 + 

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Polignano a Mer, Italy

Matera, Italy

Alberobello's Trulli in Italy

Venice, Italy

=NO BLOGGING TIME

Happy New Year, dear readers...and what a year it's been- too many celebrity deaths, terrorist attacks, general world unrest and, to top it all off, the election of a frightening new president, Donald Trump. Of course, 2017 WILL be better!

For Michael and I, with the culmination of 9 months of planning, we finally moved into the house we built. Our days have been very busy since then...STILL unpacking and looking for pieces to fill new spaces while taking trips for a break! This kind of activity doesn't allow for much blogging time... so, with the start of 2017, I'm booting up the computer to make up for lost time.

Southern Italy was our go-to place to get away from unpacking and organizing. First, Michelle and I visited a very unusual area of southern Italy: starting in Martina Franca (in Puglia,) a memorable maze of winding alleys  where whitewashed simplicity  stood side by side with baroque extravagance. There were very few people who spoke English so we struggled with our bit of Italian. We found a small cafe where the young man who owned the place spoke a bit of English...he was our savior. Here's an idea of how Martina Franca appeared to us...

Leaving Martina Franca, we passed a very large grove of olive trees. They were so beautiful, gnarled and twisted as well as ancient, so we stopped to get a closer look...

We then continued on to Polignano a Mer, a small town on the Adriatic Sea whose local economy depends mostly on tourism, agriculture and fishing. Here we experienced some stunning beaches, aqua water, ancient buildings, labyrinthine alleyways and warm, friendly people!

Alberobello was a very unusual, small community in the TRULLO-dotted Valle d'Itria.  The trullo is a fascinating architectural feature of this area of Puglia, a building with conical roof made without mortar. Alberobello has an international status as it's designated a UNESCO world heritage site - because its collection of some 1,500 trulli in an urban environment is unique. Trulli have been around since the Bronze age and the symbols on the roofs have either religious or superstitious significance. Some of the trulli are now used for stores, restaurants, and lodging. But many are still inhabited by locals, who are very friendly to visitors. Interesting to note that most tourists of Alberobello are Italians.

 

Matera was the highlight of Michelle's and my journey. The site where Mel Gibson's PASSION of CHRIST was filmed, it is off the tourist's beaten path. Known as a subterranean city, Matera is  one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It's been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Founded by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, it's made up of caves, both inhabited and empty. In fact, Michelle and I stayed in a cave. It was cozy, lit with candles, had heated floors and was actually very beautiful. 

In Matera you spend a lot of time in caves. You sleep in a cave, eat in a cave, drink an aperitivo in a cave, and even view modern sculpture in a cave. The ancient neighbourhoods, known as sassi, are a series of grottoes carved out of limestone, teetering on the edge of a ravine. It’s one of the most unique and spectacular places we’ve visited in Italy or anywhere in the world.

Until the 1950s, Matera was a source of shame for Italy, a place of poverty, malaria and high rates of infant mortality, where people lived in caves without electricity, running water or sewage. Carlo Levi’s book Christ Stopped at Eboli raised awareness of the desperate conditions people were living in and about half of the 30,000 population were moved to new homes in the modern part of the city between 1953 and 1968. No matter where you go, you must walk up or down many stone steps...not for the faint hearted!! But, definitely worth the effort.

 Home for a few weeks to continue to unpack and organize, then Michael and I took off for a short Christmas visit to Venice. Very few tourists during December. Temperatures were in the 40's (F) and there was no rain...perfect!! We never tire of the good food and beautiful sites. We noticed that things are more expensive than they were two years ago (when we were there around the same time...) and they're doing a great deal of refurbishing of old buildings as well as repurposing them. They cleared the insides of one building area to make it into a very high end department store...

The store has red escalators...and it's own SANTA!!!

Here are some more Venice photos...

Now, it's a new year filled with so many  possibilities. I welcome the challenges that 2017 will surely bring. I'm grateful for my family and friends... I'm grateful for YOU! Wishing you the best in 2017.

Looking forward to seeing you for my next blog posting...

Big Hugs,
abbyj