Rosa and Rosa With a side of Liborio and day in the Passion of the Christ

When our group returned to Three, we came across some of the most wonderful teachers we could dream off, their names were Rosa and Rosa, these teachers not only spoke fluent English which is surprisingly rare for English teachers in Italy, but were the sweetest ladies. They pulled out the red carpet for us, taking us to a local restaurant for two days worth of amazing lunches with wine to boot. After the two days we spent at their schools which were semi difficult days, (a lot of kids and a lot of shows), they took us on a hike of the local gorge with their family. This massive nature reserve was gorgeous with caves and a breathtaking view, and then invited us out to dinner with their families. They took us to a specialized restaurant where we got a chance to sample the different meats that the area is known for cooking, and we were fed course after course of beef, pork, sausage grilled to perfection and topped with appetizers and homemade wine. During diner me and Mario, one of the Rosa’s husbands, was a smart character, interested in Politics and as the wine flowed we discussed Communism in broken English with Rosa translating. After this amazing meal we attempted to pay for our part and they were almost offended we even considered such a thing. At this point we had begun discussing ways of never leaving, buying a house down the road from either Rosa, and spend our lives with their wonderful families becoming fat Italians. Leaving was like we were leaving our own Italian family, and they gave us there contact information, cookies for the road and told us if we are ever anywhere in southern Italy to call them and we have a place to stay, done and done.

Near by the city of Bari in the Southern heel was the town of Matera, which we found out about on a sugar packet in a bar. It is the oldest town in Europe and the third oldest in the world, and a hill of thousand year old cave homes, winding roads and medieval and stone churches, surrounded by even more beautiful rolling mountains, and it is where Mel Gibson filmed passion of the Christ. I spacked out a bit from to much beauty as we drove into the town were cavemen had once lived. Then an English speaking guide by the name of Liborio came and knocked on the window, offering us a tour for 50 euro’s for the three of us. We talked him down to 30 euro’s and he then proceeded to take us on a 5 hour tour of the entire town, exploring cave church’s and homes. It turns out Liborio was born in the town lived his whole life there and was a historian of the town. He showed us the cave home where his grandfather was born and all the secrets of the town, and then took us to one of his friends restaurant in town for dinner. Liborio taught us the fine rules of Scupa, the Neapolitan card game, which we had attempted to learn the morning before from some old Italian gentlemen who spoke no English. All and All I love Rosa and Rosa, Liborio is the man and I want to refurnish a cave and live in Matera.