SEXTANTIO LE GROTTE DELLA CIVITA…MATERA
Leely I know you stayed at their partner hotel in Abruzzo. And you were a factor in our choosing to stay here!! I cannot thank you enough!!
This might the most expensive hotel in Matera and both of us were SO happy that we sprung (after much back and forth between us about the price) for 2 nights here. Incomparable and unlike any other hotel in the world!
Breakfast alone would do any normal eater for a day, if not more!!! Because we booked fairly late (I wanted a hotel that was NOT in the sassi, because I like the upper town very much,) but in the end, we settled on this one, and the only rooms available weas the “executive” cave!! How’s that!! ??Executive cave room!!
So before getting into the two dinners we had in Matera, both of which were fantastic…times ten…–LA LOPA and TRATTORIA STANO, here are a few photos of our “executive cave!!”). (Initially had booked SOUL KITCHEN but after speaking with locals, including some in the food business, we cancelled that booking in favor of the two noted, above.
HOTEL IN MATERA…UNFORGETTABLE!!!
SEXTANTIO LE GROTTE DELLA CIVITA…couldl this be the most unique hotel in Italy, and one of the best in the world???
Second floor of two-story entry foyer…bedroom in back, through small opening:
Sink/toilet room:
New friend from Kuala Lumpur, after fun time in our room, playing around!!!
Bathroom, note cradle and fireplace, to replicate a Matera cave which would have been in use until the 1950s, when the outcry about “the shame of Italy” prompted government to clear the caves and move the dwellers into modern multi-rises in the upper town, above the sassi.
I do not think there is a place in Europe that compares with this small city, visually and historically. I would implore anyone whoo has not already done so to read CHRIST STOPS AT EBOLI, the masterwork written by the Jewish author Carlo Levi, who was exiled to Aliano, a town close to Matera, and who writes so poignantly about the lives of the cave-dwellers and the oppressed of this region off Bacilicata. The film of that name if equally wrenching, and truly needs to be seen…better understand modern Italy by spending a few hours with that film than thinking you understand Italy by joining the mobs along the Cinque Terre trails…
Thought I had snapped more, but this here are just two of the breakfast tables at SEXTANTIO…all local products…no plastic containers of yogurt and no slices of industrial cheeses which you can spot at even many high-end Italian hotels…spot from a mile away!!!
Look at this chocolate and cherry (amarena) cake…moist…there are no more words…all baked on site…THIS is a hotel!!! Unlike any other.
