What a sight to wake up to, right outside our door and the most unique views.  We are really loving our time here, drinking it in.

But gotta start with food.  Served in the breakfast room of this little hotel (I think they have only 10 rooms) it was lovely.  They brought some platters to our table–tomato bruschetta, some cut up melon, a mild pecorino with honey, 4 different small croissants and there was also a buffet table with yogurt and other sweets.  I didn’t eat much, still feeling stuffed from the night before but Ken was in the clean plate club, for sure. Here is our room key:

Then we started walking–up and sown and down and up.  Took a bout a million pictures.  We stood at a view spot for a while with two Dutch women and chatted a bit.  They took our picture and we took theirs.

We passed this model of the sassi where the tour guides often stop:

There is a car “convention” going on in the main piazza below.  It is full with old classic, Ferraris, Bucatis, Mercedes etc.  I don’t know one from the other but they’re fun to look at. Some of the people driving them around town are wearing costumes, like leather caps and such.  Very cute!

We just walked and walked and visited some of the churches we hadn’t gone into on the tour day. Finally came home for a rest and I actually took a good nap

You can kind of see all the cars parked in the piazza

We went out again for more of the same, got a quick coffee and a yummy little pastry called a fiorellina, like a little cherry filled flower.

evening

We totally skipped lunch so we were pretty hungry by the time 8:00 came around.  Dinner was a great experience.  On Valerie’s recommendation we went to La Latteria Rizzi to taste the foods of Lucania.  (This area’s ancient name is apparently Lucania and many store boast the authentic food of Lucania.)  We ordered a tasting for one, to share, and then one portion of local “black pork” sausage and some vegetables.  The tasting was of several cheeses.  The platter had small slices of goat cheese, one flavored with fennel seeds, one with saffron, one with red wine and one with orange.  In the center was a powerful slice of pecorino.  There was a small bowl with the best burrata I have ever tasted (Oh the milky, creamy goodness!) with small pieces of fresh strawberries in it.  And another plate with some fresh ricotta with a little sauce that looked like a well aged balsamic but tasted of cocoa.  And a plate of cured meats.  Wow!  Then they brought us the peppery sausage; it was sliced the long way and grilled. And the veg was delicious too.  To me it was the best meal we’ve had so far.  Even with the old American blues playing on a super cheap sound system. We drank another Aglianco wine which kept changing with the food pairings but worked well the whole time. The place is funky but the flavors and the opportunity to taste so many score a lot of points for me.  BTW–we were the only tourists in there.  The Italians were mostly ordering huge steaks, brought to the table raw first for inspection.  Forgot to say, the front room of the restaurant is a butcher shop.  (Josh–this place was for you!)

We had a nice stroll home and called it a night.