A few months ago, I made reservations to go see the Crypt of the Original Sin, located inside a natural cave, a few miles south of Matera. Today was the day! Commonly known as “the Sistine Chapel of repestrian art,” the Crypt was discovered in 1963 by a group of local kids, who noticed the brightly colored frescoes in a shelter for sheep herders. Experts later dated the paintings to the 8th century. No photos were allowed inside the cave, but there are photos here. There were several caves along the ravine where the Crypt was located, part of a much larger farm. The frescoes were beautiful, punctuated by a sea of red flowers. The landscape of the area was beautiful too!
When driving back toward Matera, we stopped at the Park of Rupestrian Churches, across the ravine from Matera. The area contains over 150 churches carved in the rock. The views toward Matera were beautiful!
We had lunch with Pam and Kenith today, and celebrated a great time over the past two and a half weeks, in France and Italy. They will drive to Rome tomorrow and fly back to Louisiana in a couple of days, and we will fly to Rhodes, for a couple of weeks in Greece. At 4 this afternoon, we met friends from London, Nico and Neil, who drove about 90 miles to spend a few hours with us. We met Nico and Neil on Sicily a few years ago at a B&B. We got together with them last summer in London, and by chance, we were vacationing near to each other this summer. We enjoyed antipasti together and talked fast to catch up. Another good day!
