Ciao! I know only been here 5 minutes and we've come over all italian! We picked up our car in Bari after having to run and I mean run for a bus with our backpacks on......what a laugh we gave the driver.....! but thank goodness he waited otherwise we would have had an awfully long walk to the car rental office. Maggie then decided to throw herself down the steps out of the office (just looking for sympathy from the italian women!!) anyway, off we went driving in italy, quite an experience so far, they park anywhere... its quite good fun really once you throw caution to the wind and just go with the flow. After a few wrong turns and once we realised that 2 signs one on each side of the road one pointing left and one pointing right actually means straight on! we managed to find our way to Matera where we have spent the last couple of days. We are staying in a great b & b with the most comfortable beds, swimming pool and a beautiful view over the hills and valleys. Matera is an amazing place that is famous for its Sassi which are homes that have been built out of the rocks and into caves people still live their though a lot of them are now empty. Evidently the movie Passion of the Christ was filmed here so the place has become a lot more popular. On our first day, I was very surprised when at 1pm the whole place came to a stand still, no shops, banks, even restaurants open!! I thought it was half day closing, till we came back at 7pm for dinner to find the place absolutely stuffed with people you have never seen so many in such a small place and they all knew each other!! talk about people watching....