On our last full day of the long weekend we decided to pay homage to the gods of mathematics and trekked to Metaponto, south of Matera on the coast. There we wandered the ruins of a temple to Hera built on the site of the home and school of Pythagoras after he was exiled from Croton. The ruins themselves are literally out in the middle of a field off of a service road to the highway that separates it from the coast. There is a tourist stop adjacent to it which looks as though it has been closed/abandoned for months. Fifrteen of the original columns are still present, although they appear to have undergone some restauration at least 40 years ago if the graffiti scratched into their surface is any indication.
Our second stop of the day was at Metaponto Lido, i.e. the beach. Even though the air temperature was near 70 and the water temperature seemed no worse than the Gulf of Maine in the summer, the beach was deserted save for a handful of recreational fishermen. The small town was also devoid of almost all life. So, after a leisurely stroll down the beach along the water we headed inland to find lunch.
Lunch occured at a small restaurant in the town of Bernalda, perhaps most famous as the home of Francis Ford Coppola. Then we returned to Matera for our third and final night in a cave.
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