City of Caves

Matera is an amazing place. It's so ancient that filmakers & historians feel it is what Old Jerusalem may have looked like - Mel Gibson's film The Passion used Matera as a real-life film set. The city is slowly being restored. It has been designated a World Heritage Site and now funds are available to help preserve it. It was a slum area for years with generations living there in poverty in the cave dwellings (visit the tiny museum showing how they lived - it's fascinating!). It was only quite recently, in the 1950s, that the government moved the population out and into better quality housing with running water & electricity. It seems that the city then slowy started to just rot away. Now, enterprising people are moving back in and doing up the unique properties. Matera, Basilicata, Italy

Atrani On Fire

Atrani, Amalfi Coast, Campania, Italy

Pietrapertosa

The Borgo rises at the end of a road full of hairpin bends, a landscape made of intended and sharp pinnacles, sloping rocks and ridges touching the sky, that reminds a Northern Italy Dolomite scenery but in the very Southern Italy. Pietrapertosa is inside the Gallipoli Cognato and Dolomites of Lucania Park, characterized by the typical fantastic sandstone shapes. Entering the Borgo, you’ll have to cross a boulder to reach the built up area; Pietrapertosa appears in the form of an amphitheatre, protected by rocks against which the winds of the north break

Amalfi's Treasures

Atrani shot from the small beach between Atrani and Castiglione, Amalfi Coast, Campania, Italy

Matera

Matera is an amazing place. It's so ancient that filmakers & historians feel it is what Old Jerusalem may have looked like - Mel Gibson's film The Passion used Matera as a real-life film set. The city is slowly being restored. It has been designated a World Heritage Site and now funds are available to help preserve it. It was a slum area for years with generations living there in poverty in the cave dwellings (visit the tiny museum showing how they lived - it's fascinating!). It was only quite recently, in the 1950s, that the government moved the population out and into better quality housing with running water & electricity. It seems that the city then slowy started to just rot away. Now, enterprising people are moving back in and doing up the unique properties. Matera, Basilicata, Italy

Atrani

Atrani, Amalfi Coast, Campania, Italy

Two Towers

Matera, Basilicata, Italy

Valle delle Ferriere

Hike to Valle delle Ferriere. The route is easy and not particularly tiring, winding through beautiful forests, springs, small waterfalls and the rapids of the Rio Canneto. In the valley the ruins of the mills of the twelfth century can still be visited. The landscape is unspoilt and descends into the valley with breathtaking panoramic views, through the Mediterranean bush and terraces of lemon trees and vineyards.

Farewell To Atrani

Embedded between the Civita Hill and Aureo Hill, along the river of Dragone, Atrani features some very scenic views. Incidentally it often serves as a set for the films and commercials, since its surroundings, alleys, lemon groves and staircases are incredibly photogenic. It was our last evening in this charming town. Atrani, Amalfi Coast, Campania, Italy

Castelmezzano

Perched on a wall of peaks and pinnacles amid a fantastic rocky landscape, Castelmezzano has preserved its original medieval structure. It is in fact a cluster of concentric houses set in a terraced rocky hollow, with roofs tiled with sheets of sandstone. Touring around the old town centre is suggestive for the unreal presence of the rock inserted in the buildings, the countless steep stairs that intertwine and invite you to climb to the peaks above and enjoy the fabulous scenery of the “Lucanian Dolomites,” whose rugged, craggy appearance likens them to the mountains of the eastern Alps (although here they are of a different rock type, a compact sandstone).

Positano

Positano never fails to seduce. Seen from the sea, Positano is set in a dramatic vertical panorama of colors; the green of the Monti Lattari, the white, pink and yellow of the Mediterranean houses, the silvery grey of its pebble beaches and the blue of the sea.

Stone City

Matera is an amazing place. It's so ancient that filmakers & historians feel it is what Old Jerusalem may have looked like - Mel Gibson's film The Passion used Matera as a real-life film set. The city is slowly being restored. It has been designated a World Heritage Site and now funds are available to help preserve it. It was a slum area for years with generations living there in poverty in the cave dwellings (visit the tiny museum showing how they lived - it's fascinating!). It was only quite recently, in the 1950s, that the government moved the population out and into better quality housing with running water & electricity. It seems that the city then slowy started to just rot away. Now, enterprising people are moving back in and doing up the unique properties. Matera, Basilicata, Italy

Two Towers

Matera, Basilicata, Italy

Positano II

Positano never fails to seduce. Seen from the sea, Positano is set in a dramatic vertical panorama of colors; the green of the Monti Lattari, the white, pink and yellow of the Mediterranean houses, the silvery grey of its pebble beaches and the blue of the sea.

Neck Of The Woods

There comes a time, even during the most exciting trip, when you need to leave out all that crowded places, all that noise and find some peaceful place to rest, to relax and to think. Valle delle Ferriere, Amalfi Coast, Campania, Italy