The Camino Materano - 7 days

Your trip starts in Bari, a city full of life and surprises that is often unjustly overlooked by most tourists. Enjoy a walk along the waterfront, lined with art noveau buildings, before taking your time to visit the two main sights: the Castello Svevo-Normanno, overlooking the city center and the Adriatic Sea, and the Church of San Nicola (one of Italy's finest example of Romanic architecture, and a pilgrims' destination). In the evening, enjoy a stroll in the lively Bari Vecchia quarter, to find the real spirit of the city.

This morning a taxi takes you to Cassano, o start your walk. You first venture into the Mesola forest where you pass various oak trees and Aleppo pines, amidst the sounds of cicadas and muffled bird songs. 

Your journey is full of changes:  dirt roads, dry stone walls, small pine forests with shadey reprieves and fields filled with sheep. 

Today you reach Santeramo in Colle: here you can sit in the piazza and enjoy a granita, while the main street comes alive in front of your eyes. You have the opportunity to watch the village cultural circles meet in small groups.  The town is famous for its butcheries – just choose the meat cut that you’d like and they will cook it for you on an open-air oven. 

 Distance: 21 km, 5 hrs, 475m total ascent, 299m total descent 

Your playing field today is the Alta Murgia National Park: here in the spring, the fields are colored with wildflowers, while in Summer it resembles a lunar landscape with warm shades of burnt grass.  On your way, you pass white farm buildings and “jazzi” (corrals for animals), archaeological remains and caves that contain ancient frescoes.  

Today you arrive in Altamura.  Altamura is a slice of Apulian life – the main street coming alive every morning with families strolling, elders chatting on the piazza benches, and ovens baking the local durum flour DOP bread with never-ending passion, day after day. 

A visit you can’t miss is to the Archaeological Museum: it’s dedicated to the Altamura man, a well-preserved skeleton of a Neanderthal man found in a cave just outside of town.  The man will rest in the cave forever because taking him out of the cave would certainly destroy the delicate bones, however,  the museum houses a life-size reproduction. 

Distance: 24,4 km, 6 hrs, 300m total ascent, 337m total descent 

Today you walk in the open countryside of sunflower and grain fields, herbal gardens and open pastures. 

The name Gravina, the village that we reach today, means canyon: the city is literally built at the edge of a large canyon, an incredible view to enjoy after a visit to the beautiful Cathedral. 

To understand the history of Gravina one must "go underground". Underneath the modern city lies a hidden city, dug through the centuries in the soft tufa rock.  Cellars that stored wine, rock churches, stables…an underground world to explore with young local volunteers who, if you decide to take part in their guided tour, will passionately lead you to the discovery of this underground world. 

Distance: 19,8 km, 5 hrs, 300m total ascent, 420m total descent 

Leaving Gravina you cross a stone bridge which spans an immense ravine that gives the city its name.  You catch your breath when you realize you are walking on Via Appia, the ancient road that connected Rome to the important Brindisi port. 

As you continue our path leads us to the Archaeological area of Botromagno where you meet Giuseppe and follow him to his house, your home for tonight. An enchanting place, a farm where the chemical-free production follows the natural rhythm of seasons – one among the first farms in Basilicata to choose a natural way of farming. 

Here you can relax on the covered porch, watching the daily farm activies as well as the animals who live here wandering in the fields. You will relish our dinner based on products grown just a few meters from our table. 

 Distance: 10 km, 3 hours, 151m total ascent, 236m total descent 

The last stage of our walk, the last steps towards Matera. 

After a transfer to the starting point of our walk,you say "good-bye" to Giovanni’s family and set off. You follow forests and soft hills in an ondulating landscape of cultivated fields taking us to Matera. If you’ve never been here, you will find that the mystery of Matera lingers until the very moment we reach our first glimpse and see the Sassi neighborhoods. Cave-like houses carved in the rock, built one on top of another. A heritage of a past that was first defined “the shame of Italy” only later to become an Unesco World Heritage Site and the setting to several movies. 

Matera is a real open air museum, a maze of bed and breakfasts, artisanal workshops and little restaurants, overlooking a deep ravine. 

Matera is the European Capital of Culture of 2019, and this will be a year of celebration; the city will be lively and festive, alight in its every corner.  Join the celebration; you got to the end of your adventure and this party is also for you! 

Distance: 15 km, 4 hours, 387m total ascent, 107m total descent 

After breakfast, your travel is ended.