• Europe,  Italy

    Matera, Mel and malaria

    Let’s start with an exercise. Don’t worry, I don’t want you to stretch your muscles. I want you to stretch your imagination. Imagine a town on the edge of a gorge. Imagine inhabited caves. Each cave is a fully functioning house – there’s a kitchen, dining area, bedroom, bathroom and place for a donkey and some chickens. All in one cave, including a whole family. No running water, only rainwater. No vegetable garden, only tufa limestone. If you want to actually grow something, you have to go to the other side of the gorge. And now imagine 15 000 people living in these caves. Sounds like diseases. Like malaria. And…

  • Europe,  Italy

    Apulia: Locorotondo

    We didn’t include Locorotondo in our plan. It was 6km from the trullo we stayed in in the middle of nowhere aka olive grove. So we thought: why not. And this is the kind of surprise I like. If Locorotondo is not one of the most beautiful towns in Italy, I don’t know what is. Oh wait. It’s actually on the list Borghi più belli d’Italia, which is a list of the most beautiful towns in Italy. Told ya. Locorotondo was completely EMPTY when we arrived. No tourist at all. No people at all. It was afternoon, siesta time. Everything was closed except for maybe 2 restaurants and 3 cafes.…