The Forgotten Southern Italy

This summer Richard Juhlin took a Giro d’Italia (in the south). [ read the full champagne story ] 

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Nowadays I divide my vacation month of July into two halves with a focus on different places at the Mediterranean. A discovery trip and a more stationary one with my wife and kids . It is hard to imagine anything better than a vacation spiced with fun, enjoyable work in Italy. My oldest friend Henrik and I had been planning another road trip through Europe for a few months. We have been traveling together since we were teenagers, and for the past five years we have been traveling with our grown children without women and toddlers, which undoubtedly increases the possibilities for a little more advanced debauchery. The first time we did Northern Italy all the way down to Tuscany. The second destination was the Greek mainland with the unlikely Meteora. The third time was a tour of southern France from Menton to Chamonix via Carcassonne and last year northern Spain from San Sebastian to Santiago de Compostela.

This year when it was Italy again

 I have to admit that it was actually James Bond who chose the route for us. It sounds a bit strange, but it is actually true as I was so completely captivated by the magical place where large parts of the latest Bond film ”No time to die” were filmed. A place I strangely enough completely missed when I was scouting photo locations for the Champagne Hiking book. A place not only incredibly beautiful but also completely unique in that it is so barren and poor in its gray scale where the houses are stacked on top of each other on the top of a steep cliff edge next to a breathtakingly deep ravine. Matera is the world’s third oldest city after war-torn Aleppo and Jericho with settlements in caves that are still almost intact from 9000 years ago. The city is also the only one in the world where people still live in the same houses as their ancestors from so far back in time. For a long time, the city center itself was Italy’s poorest and most smelly stain. In 1952, the city was emptied and the evacuees moved to barracks just outside the Sassi de Matera. In 1993, the city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2019, the European Capital of Culture, and today it is absolutely fantastically renovated and free from dirt and unwanted odors. A unique fact that it unfortunately does not share with so many other of Italy’s famous historical cities. An oh-so-beautiful walk in Florence or Rome can easily be ruined by the city’s scent profile, at least if you are a champagne expert with a sensitive nose. I now avoid Venice completely because it stinks in every alley and canal. Pasolini was the first to understand how to set a film epic in Matera in his famous film The Gospel of Matthew. Wonder Woman and a couple of Mel Gibson films with historical implications also have Matera as a setting. But no one else has captured the city’s magic so deliciously, perhaps most of all through some unforgettable stunt scenes with improbable motorcycle jumps as a crescendo, like Daniel Craig’s James Bond. I simply had to travel there and do a proper Bollinger Hiking! And of course I did.

Southern Italian destinations 

With Matera as my main destination, I asked my Italian friends about other southern Italian destinations to visit and the best way to get there. Few were particularly enthusiastic and my good friend, the Italian champagne guru Alberto Lupetti, warned me about everything south of the Amalfi Coast, like the patriotic Roman he is. The heat, the substandard road network, the scorched landscape, the garbage, the poverty and the lethargic culture would not make us happy, he said. But with a carefully planned route, as usual orchestrated by Per at the eminent Go-in-Style, where we picked the gems of the southern regions and stayed in the best hotels, we were more than happy with our choice to explore southern Italy. The dreaded heat was conspicuous by its absence, as usual, despite the Swedish journalistic corps warning every day of the climate crisis and extreme heat with fake temperature reports. It was 34 degrees Celsius the day I played James Bond and ran around the streets of Matera in a suit, otherwise it was 27-32 degrees Celsius the whole time during the trip to Italy and even cooler on the French Riviera during the second half of July. So absolutely perfect! 

The roads were more than okay, maybe not of Swiss class, hardly an Autoroute or Autobahn, but in significantly better condition than in our super rich western neighbor Norway, for example. Could it be time to spend some oil fund money on the roads? The landscape was certainly less lush than further north, but with significantly more greenery and natural splendor than we had imagined. The ancient cities, always on top of hills and usually located next to deep ravines, are well worth visiting and seeing. If there was anything that was right in Alberto’s dystopian anti-advertisement, it was the slightly lethargic culture where the level of service often left a lot to be desired. There were quite a few misunderstandings that took place in star restaurants and 5-star hotels. Sometimes directly linked to poor language understanding but also caused by a cultural difference where the men’s nonchalant arrogance was a bit hard for us to digest. The women, on the other hand, were generally nicer, more accommodating and more knowledgeable.

Landed in Naples

The trip started with a comfortable day flight before we picked up our beautiful Audi at Naples airport, but oh how confusing it is with rental cars. Does it have to be that difficult? Late in the evening, just outside the southern suburbs of the wonderful and two-edged metropolis, we checked into a completely unlikely place called Castello la Sonrisa. It was probably the least high-class hotel of the trip, but also by far the cheapest and an incredibly different and fun experience. The fairytale castle became famous through a reality TV series “The Castle of Ceremonies” with extravagant weddings and intrigues in an unreal environment. Extremely lavish in the best Las Vegas style, but also plasticky and kitschy as it should be. The now deceased owner was good friends with Sophia Loren, Maradona, Messi and the entire Italian football aristocracy. The family still owns and runs the hotel, which is part of an ongoing legal tangle surrounding the building in a spirit that is well in line with the reputation of the area. We were almost alone in the unreal environment and if the food and wine list had been of normal Italian class we would probably have been super satisfied. Now we were taken care of by a lone waiter and a chef who felt as lost in the kitchen as the waiter in the ultra-lit plastic dining room. The rooms were incredibly nice and a little morning dip in the fountain cooled us off nicely when we started the trip for real the next day.

Alberobello

The journey was directed towards Puglia and the region’s most talked-about town, Alberobello, with its strange fairytale houses, Trulli. These characteristic houses have a long history and are still in use. They turned out to be much more common throughout southern Puglia than we had any idea. The small pyramid-shaped peaked houses are built of local limestone and are chalky white with gray stone roofs that resemble Santa’s hats. Cute and fascinating, certainly, but are they really so beautiful that you make a pilgrimage there to experience them in person? In Alberobello iitself, we sought out the city’s premier restaurant, Eco, which was more a product of the politically correct spirit of the time than of the region’s greatness. Sustainable and locally produced, well thought out, organic, but not particularly good. A bottle of 2017 Louis Roederer Rosé and a nice cool summer evening breeze of Nordic style still carried us home satisfied and contented to our wonderful oasis, Villa San Martino, despite the gastronomic disappointment.

Villa San Martino

Villa San Martino is without a doubt the most elegant watering hole in the region. A perfect resort like France has so many where you turn away from an ordinary place near the pilgrimage route to enter a small paradise of calm and cozy atmosphere and pleasurable feelings. A place of contemplation where time seems to stand still, at least for a moment. The garden, the pool, the birds, the variety of butterflies, the gym, the terrace, the rooms in all their glory, but it is probably the food at Bros with its two-star ambitions from its origins in Lecce and the genuinely friendly and helpful staff that left the strongest impression. The staff, which consisted of Spaniards, South Americans, Irish and Italians, was nothing short of a super team.

Champagne Hiking in the garden

The garden with its botanical richness invited us to Champagne Hiking and blind tasting of course. We started with Leclerc-Briant‘s new ‘Les Carelles‘. Very exciting to blind taste a wine you didn’t know existed. I was pretty quick to think of oak Mesnil or Avize. I ended up with the 2019 Agrapart ‘Venus’ before I even tasted it. Broad style, richly barreled and delicious with great natural exoticism and sweetness while the saltiness and acidity are there under the surface. When I finally headed towards Leclerc-Briant, the sensation came. They have made a wine from Selosse’s famous favorite location in Mesnil! Probably already the company’s best wine and enormously enjoyable, but despite the strong barrel character and honey-dripping fruit, it has none of the floral and intensely perfumed notes that elevate Selosse’s version to world class. Even better, a bit unexpected in the warm climate, was the 2008 La Grande Dame, which is almost a blanc de noirs and as recently as last year was young and undeveloped. Here it shone beautifully in harmony with the place and the occasion. The ripening is slowly starting to appear and the chocolate notes so typical of La Grande Dame were not missed by Henrik, who set the blind tasting perfectly, as close as it was to the vintage.

Lecce

If we were disappointed in Alberobello, we were all the more impressed by Lecce, which is often rightly called the « Florence of Southern Italy ». If you follow in our footsteps, you must check into one of the Worlds Leading Hotels, Patria Palace. Not for the service or the rooms but for its incomparably fine location and for its lovely roof terrace. The heart of the city is one of the most beautiful churches I have seen, The Basilica of the Holy Cross. Not as majestic as the largest Gothic churches, but with an ornate facade and harmoniously balanced beauty that few of the world’s religious buildings can match. On the hotel’s roof terrace with a grandiose view of the church’s front facade, we drank both 2019 Pascal Agrapart Avizoise and, surprisingly, even more appropriately, a pure blanc de noirs from Bollinger, 2020 PN/TX. The entire historic center of the city consists of pedestrian streets with genuine atmosphere and grandiose Italian beauty. The longest walk took us to one of the best star restaurants of the trip. The modest and understatedly charming Primo. Where we continued our slightly odd combination of blanc de blancs and La Grande Dame. Again, the 2012 LGD triumphed with its sophisticated elegance over a 2009 Pascal Doquet Mesnil. The food and servings were also unpretentious, but well-balanced and terribly good with a full range of ingredients. Most of all, we will remember a trilogy on tomato where the highlight was a gazpacho with crust and cucumber as accents on a base of the most elegant small local tomatoes, whose name I unfortunately do not remember.

Matera

After Lecce it was finally time for the main destination of the trip, Matera, where we checked into an unreal Spa Hotel in converted historical caves in the middle of the old town. You can see Aquatio Cave in our Champagne Friday movie where I play James Bond both in the bathroom and especially rushing through the streets of Matera in a gray suit. Damn how much fun it was to play Daniel Craig, but sweaty. The heat apparently did me good because now I’m back to my veteran sprinting. Unfortunately, we chose the hottest day of the year to drink 1983 Bollinger Grande Année and 2002 Bollinger R.D. which of course is not optimal for these pinot giants, but oh my goodness how much we enjoyed it as you can see in the movie. The next day we hiked to and entered a couple of abandoned 8000-year-old caves with a breathtaking location on the cliff edge of the ravine and finished by being guided around the cobblestone streets of the car-free city in a Tuk-Tuk.

Vitantonio Lombardo 

In the evening we had booked Basilicata’s only starred restaurant, Vitantonio Lombardo, which didn’t quite live up to expectations despite both Iteration 24 and 25 Grand Siécle for the clean and stylish dishes. The service was chaotic to say the least and the draft from the AC was unbearable. 34 degrees outside and 18 degrees inside with a draft of 12 meters per second is not a contrast to recommend. On our last day in Matera we decided not to book anything but just settle down somewhere outdoors where it looked nice. Once again we experienced that Italian cuisine is often at its best in its ingenious simplicity. At La Bottega we only tried classics that were so yummy that you don’t want to eat anything else. There was mozzarella, melons, tomatoes, hams and pasta dishes in a sumptuous abundance, washed down with the restaurateur’s own rich Taurasi.

Calabria 

After our wonderful stay in the heart of Basilicata, we were to encounter Italy’s poorest and most notorious region, Calabria, where the mafia still has an even stronger hold than in Naples and Sicily. The poverty was hard to miss as the region is filled with half-finished houses and graffitied facades. The roadsides are pure garbage dumps and the public beaches should not be visited without sandals as they are full of broken glass. On the other hand, the entire coastline is very beautiful and apparently reaches its peak in Tropea, a gem we unfortunately never reached. Instead, we started from the well-regarded Praia Art Hotel in La Castella, which is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. There used to be a star restaurant here, but the food was now completely ordinary and the arrogant cockfighting of the male waiters culminated here. Nice rooms and close to the beach, but otherwise a clear disappointment and not something I can recommend to you. 

On the other hand, you must not miss Abbruzzino Oltre in Casantaro. Unfortunately, the restaurant had changed premises and city and our promised 15 minutes in the taxi turned into three hours there and back. We were still glad we got there because it was the main restaurant we ate at all summer. Extremely elegant and professional with a precision and height of taste that justified 2 Michelin stars. The wine list had many real bargains and both Krug and Cristal cost less than they do in the restaurants in Champagne. It turned out that the restaurant’s skilled sommelier, Luciano Tassone, was a faithful follower of our unique work in the Champagne Club, which of course made the meeting even more profound and heartfelt.

Savoy Beach Hotel

For the last five days, Per had booked us into the Savoy near the sea so that we could finish with a more stationary luxury beach holiday. I know Campania inside out after all my trips to the Amalfi Coast, Capri and above all my five trips to Ischia with my family. However, I had completely missed the historic region of Paestum south of the Amalfi Coast before, so it was a joy to enter this palace-like hotel and cycle around and look at the old Greek temples that are actually the best preserved in all of Italy. We also spent a lot of time at the luxurious beach with views all the way to Capri and Positano. The Savoy also had its own Beach Club that, in my opinion, outshines most in Saint-Tropez and Cannes. 

Guiseppe Pagano is the man behind the newfound boost of Paestum. We had the pleasure of getting to know this enthusiast and super entrepreneur and learning about the whole story where he started as an apprentice at one of the area’s hotels and gradually created a small empire that the entire area has enjoyed. He is treated like a king and all his staff love him regardless of whether they work at the hotel, the winery, one of his restaurants or with his main source of income, the Mozzarella buffaloes. The two-star restaurant Tre Olivi was incredibly elegant, but perhaps a little stiff in comparison to his simpler restaurant La Dispensa where all the genuine local cuisine has to offer is cooked with love by three elderly mothers without any culinary training. It should taste like it does at people’s homes, said Guiseppe. And if Guiseppe says it should be a certain way, it will be so. The San Salvatore 88 wine estate is one of the top three in Campania and the Mozzarella that you always get daily fresh is the best I have ever eaten!

Then you have to put up with the fact that the wind from the buffalo farm sometimes blows in the wrong direction, as it unfortunately did last evening when we were sitting out on our terrace in the Paestum Suite and had lined up both Cristal 04, Comtes 02 and 05 for Hiking. We quickly had to shut ourselves in and agreed that the 2002 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne was the summer’s best wine and a worthy end to another magical adventure in newly trodden footsteps.            

Restaurant ratings

1. Abbruzzino Oltre, Casantaro 94p
2. Primo, Lecce 93p
3. Tre Olivi, Paestum 92p
4. Bros, Alberobello 91p
5. Vitantonio Lombardo, Matera 90p 
6. La Bottega, Matera 89p
7. Arbustico, Paestum 88p
8. Antenze, Lecce 88p
9. La Dispensa, Paestum 87p
10. Olivetta, Paestum 85p
11. Evo, Alberobello 83p
12. Osteria del Mare, La Castella 82p

Hotel ratings

1. Villa San Martino, Alberobello 94p
2. Aquatio Cave, Matera 93p
3. Savoy Beach Hotel, Paestum 93p
4. Patria Palace, Lecce 93p
5. Praia Art Hotel, La Castella 88p
6. Castello la Sonrisa, Napoli 86p