{"id":10107,"date":"2024-09-29T17:25:07","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T16:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=10107"},"modified":"2024-09-29T20:24:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T19:24:15","slug":"day-55-matera-and-travel-to-paestum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/29\/day-55-matera-and-travel-to-paestum\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 55 – Matera and travel to Paestum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s another (mostly) travel day today. We\u2019re leaving the fabulous town of Matera and heading for Greek Paestum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first we had to check out the \u201cother\u201d view of Matera, from the other side of the valley looking back at the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We couldn\u2019t check out of the campsite until 9:30 (probably should have checked out the night before) and so we got to the Belvedere di Murgia Timone view point by about 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, our Italian isn\u2019t great. We give it a go, but we\u2019re not great, especially when it comes to road signs. Anyway, we got to the park associated with the view point and there was a tatty shed of a building reporting to be the tourist centre (or something similar). But we knew the viewpoint had a car park (we\u2019d seen it on Maps) very near to the valley edge, which was still over a km away. However, the road to that car park was narrow, single lane and looked like it was meant for touring busses only. But none of the signed on the entrance to the road seemed to say we couldn\u2019t got down it, so we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Really not sure we were allowed down here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We met one car coming the other way on our tentative 1km drive down the road. So we assumed that at least others had made the same call as us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we got to the car park there was also one other car there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
View Point Car Park – we think!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, we got out and took some photos…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Looking back at Matera from Belvedere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Houses carved in stone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Matera castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sue deep in thought<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Obligatory selfi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
John looking cool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pictures really don\u2019t do this view justice. It\u2019s beyond epic! With the usual Italian view of cliff edge safety (none) you can get right up to the cliff edge and look the two or three hundred meter gap to the city! Fantastico!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Couple of guys doing the views by horseback<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So after about 20 minutes admiring the view we set the Nav for our campsite just past Paestum – Agro Camping!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
We followed the horses out of the car park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Apple Maps has been pretty reasonable on our trip so far. But today it decided to take us on some of the worse \u201cproper\u201d roads we\u2019ve encountered so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Route from Belvedere to Agro (pun intended!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
It\u2019s pretty arid around Matera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first bit was ok, but there was a stretch of about 20k before we got to Potenza where there were massive potholes, huge sink holes and\/or the road disintegrating. Add that to the crazy gradients and the hairpins and we had to have our wits about us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bridge or wall retention<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Really bad roads heading to Potenza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Past Potenza we were mostly on dual carriageway, and not bad road surfaces. But you still needed your wits on full alert as road works could mean a change to the other carriageway via a 5m drop combined with almost right angle turns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our carriageway could drop onto other carriageway with a 5m drop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Or a nearly 90 degree turn on a dual carriageway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now\u2026 a word about Italian drivers. It\u2019s been said before and it\u2019ll be said again\u2026 They\u2019re hilarious. Overtaking on blind bends, brows of hills, you name it, any bit of road (safe or not) is an overtaking opportunity. And of course it\u2019s done even if it makes no difference to the driver\u2019s progress\u2026 just stuck in the same 50 car queue that everyone else is in. We even saw someone overtake someone who was overtaking today. I have a theory that the overtaking isn\u2019t anything to do with getting to their destination faster, it\u2019s just to show that they\u2019re more macho than you. Fortunately most of these kamikaze drivers will be dead soon, the road mortality rate must be astronomical in Italy. Their loss not ours \ud83e\udd37\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some friends of ours said they\u2019d been driving in Albania recently and would prefer to have been driving blindfold in Vietnam rather than Albania. So we dodged a bullet there by using the ferries a couple of weeks ago!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere just after Potenza we stopped for a coffee in a petrol station. Very friendly staff who sort of got what we were trying to do. Then we sat in the van and had some lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coffee Stop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once we\u2019d got to the Paestum area we dived into the only Supermarket we could find – Sole365, not seen that chain before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then off to the campsite where there was only one other campervan. The site owner only does checking from 18:00 to 22:00 so we parked up and went for a walk looking for a tobacconist for stamps. Everywhere was shut\u2026 everywhere!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seems to be a lot of these self service shops, yesterday ice cream, today pharmacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pharmacy self serve machine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We suspect there\u2019s so many of these self serve places because many shops shut during the day and on Sundays. We don\u2019t seem to have picked up this trend in the UK, and we suspect it\u2019s because it\u2019s so easy to find a shop that\u2019s always open back home, even big supermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then we came across Zero Glutine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Zero Glutime, Capaccio Scalo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was shut, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we made some tea and sat down to watch No Time To Die – for the Matera sequence of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made some tea about 6 and decided to head out and see if the Senze Glutime shop was open – it did say it would be open between 4 and 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And our luck was in, it was open. Normally I\u2019d be all over this shop, but on this paleo-keto diet I\u2019m currently on, even GF stuff is off the menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Inside Zero Glutine – Cappacio Scalo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then on the way home we just had to have a nosey at the new range of Cat hardware!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Just what we need for the garden (Tom?!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First thing Tomorrow we\u2019re driving the 3km to Paestum and then onto Amalfi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s another (mostly) travel day today. We\u2019re leaving the fabulous town of Matera and heading for Greek Paestum. But first we had to check out the \u201cother\u201d view of Matera, from the other side of the valley looking back at the town. We couldn\u2019t check out of the campsite until 9:30 (probably should have checked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-summer-holiday-to-greece","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/746a1561-2-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-2D1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10042,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/26\/day-53-gallipoli-to-matera\/","url_meta":{"origin":10107,"position":0},"title":"Day 53 – Gallipoli to Matera","author":"John Martin","date":"September 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Another travel day\u2026 the relentless pull of the road never ceases! Not much to report today, and the Dashcam was playing silly buggers (needed the SD card reformatting) and so there\u2019s not much from there either. Camping Torre Sabea was a nice little site. Very tired, quirky, but we enjoyed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7981.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7981.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7981.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7981.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7981.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7981.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10060,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/27\/day-54-matera\/","url_meta":{"origin":10107,"position":1},"title":"Day 54 – Matera","author":"John Martin","date":"September 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Well\u2026 it\u2019s another one of those WOW! days. You can see why Matera got used in the latest No Time To Die, Bond film. It was a reasonably leisurely start as we opted to take one of the two complimentary shuttles into town from the campsite. Which dropped us off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_20240927_192251_868-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_20240927_192251_868-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_20240927_192251_868-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_20240927_192251_868-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_20240927_192251_868-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_20240927_192251_868-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10470,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/day-65-home-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":10107,"position":2},"title":"Day 65 – Home Again","author":"John Martin","date":"October 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"And so our mini adventure ends. There\u2019s not much to say about the day itself and I\u2019ll leave the conclusions to further posts where I hope to pull some more considered thoughts together about the trip. However, for today, we did manage to get off from our one night stop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8439.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10131,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/29\/day-56-paestum-and-travel-to-amalfi\/","url_meta":{"origin":10107,"position":3},"title":"Day 56 – Paestum and travel to Amalfi","author":"John Martin","date":"September 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"So\u2026 this was one of the days I\u2019d been looking forward to. We\u2019d visited Paestum in 2019, and if we were going to be in the area again then it\u2019s somewhere I wouldn\u2019t want to miss. Quite a prominent cell tower on the Agro site The morning started with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9985,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/25\/day-52-gallipoli\/","url_meta":{"origin":10107,"position":4},"title":"Day 52 – Gallipoli","author":"John Martin","date":"September 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"After making our way yesterday from Brindisi to just outside Gallipoli, through Lecce, we were destined to head into Gallipoli today. It was a sunny start to the day, but way too early. We\u2019re right next to the loos at this site and the cleaners were chatting loudly to each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7892.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7892.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7892.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7892.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7892.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7892.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8838,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/08\/12\/day-8-vianden-castle\/","url_meta":{"origin":10107,"position":5},"title":"Day 8 – Vianden Castle","author":"John Martin","date":"August 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"We have two nights in the Vianden Castle Campsite. We\u2019re finding that unless it\u2019s a really limited amount of stuff we want to do in an area then it\u2019s best to stay two nights in a place. That way we have time to do whatever the area has to offer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5269.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5269.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5269.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5269.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5269.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/img_5269.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10107"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10195,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10107\/revisions\/10195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}