Review of our journey to Basilicata and Puglia

An unforgettable experience in Matera

This summer we traveled to Italy, to the beautiful regions Basilicata and Puglia. We lived in Matera, explored this charming city and we also made trips to the surrounding area every day. We were very lucky to have as our tourist guide Mr. Giovanni Ricciardi. With great erudition, with deep knowledge of Italian and world history, history of art, and with cultural and religious context, he precisely explained to us the circumstances of the creation, the origin and the subsequent history of all the monuments we visited. He guided us to the cathedrals, churches, monasteries, abbeys, unique rock ancient sanctuaries and early Christian monuments. With Mr. Giovanni´s enriching interpretation was our discovery journey of these beautiful Italian regions an unforgettable experience. One day spent swimming in the Ionian Sea with a feast at a local farm was also a pleasant experience. We visited many interesting historical places – Matera, Civita, Sasso Caveoso, Sasso Barisano, Parco della Murgia Materana, Santa Maria della Palomba, Cristo la Selva, Chapel del Peccato Originale (called Sistina Chapel of rock churches), Dolomiti Lucane with ancient stone calendar, Oliveto Lucano, Pietrapertosa, Castelmezzano, Metaponto, Santa Maria di Anglona, Tursi, Bari and others. We plan to come back to Italy and explore more beautiful places in these areas because there is a lot to discover. Mr. Giovanni Ricciardi is the right person to guide us again and we highly recommend him to future visitors. Greetings from Prague and enjoy some photos from our journey to Matera and surroundings.

Agata Gal, Prague (Czech Republic)