Via Ellenica
A 200-mile stroll from Brindisi to Matera
February 11 - 18, 2025 -- compiled by Jeff DePree
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A 200-mile stroll from Brindisi to Matera
February 11 - 18, 2025 -- compiled by Jeff DePree
www.strava.com/activities/13605426745
It would seem the flagging communities of the Italian hinterlands beheld the hordes of pilgrims descending on the Meseta of Northern Spain, and concluded that they needed a Camino of their own. The Cammino Materano, through a spiderweb of 6 multi-week hikes, connect the various corners of the boot to the stunning stone city of Matera. Along the way, enthusiastic volunteers provide places to stay, guide you through their towns, feed you curly cookies, and adorn your pilgrim passport with lovely stamps.
At this early stage, interactions can be a bit limited without Italian fluency, but these paths generally seem like an amazing model for encouraging tourists to move slowly through lesser-visited locales and engage with the locals on a human level.
camminomaterano.it/
The Path
Particularly early on, the route is mostly quiet gravel paths through olive groves. In the later days, you get more interesting single-track along canyon walls. I found myself wishing for a bike in several sections.
You pass through fairly few towns, but typically get one or two hilltop villages per day with cool winding streets and impressive views. Conical trulli houses dominated the middle section, and the end had plenty of canyons, cave homes, and rock churches.
The markings are decent, but you’ll definitely want to supplement them with a GPX viewer. There are fairly frequent marked water stops that seem to involve asking at a farmhouse, but these would only be necessary in the summertime.
Food
The advertised 4-course “pilgrim menus” tended to be about 20 euros, so I gave up on ever eating at a restaurant and lived off of pizza, focaccia, and kebabs. A typical 200g slice, adequate for a meal, ran around 2 euros, and falafel pitas were under 4. Opening hours tend to be annoyingly infrequent and late, with most places only opening for dinner at 7:30 or 8.
Lodging
I was a bit surprised by the lack of cheap options on Booking/AirBnb – the lowest was typically between $40 and $55. But I almost always had a fairly luxurious apartment all to myself, with a full kitchen, work area, etc.
Weather
Most days were on the verge of shorts weather, but I was most often in a light puffy and balaclava. Conditions oscillated between intense sunshine and heavy cloud clover. One day of sporadic storms was sufficient to kill off my supposedly waterproof Pixel 6.
Getting There
AirFrance got me into Naples and out of Rome on super-comfy half-empty planes for about 38k miles and $300. The endpoints of Brindisi and Matera are served by frequent 10-euro buses. Denver immigration took all of 30 seconds.
Phone
Italy has lots of phone plans that give you 200GB for $8. But unlike everywhere else, there’s an additional $20 startup fee. I used an eSim instead, which was incredibly convenient and cost $5 for 5gb over 30 days – these don’t come with a phone number, but Skype and WhatsApp proved sufficient.
It would seem the flagging communities of the Italian hinterlands beheld the hordes of pilgrims descending on the Meseta of Northern Spain, and concluded that they needed a Camino of their own. The Cammino Materano, through a spiderweb of 6 multi-week hikes, connect the various corners of the boot to the stunning stone city of Matera. Along the way, enthusiastic volunteers provide places to stay, guide you through their towns, feed you curly cookies, and adorn your pilgrim passport with lovely stamps.
At this early stage, interactions can be a bit limited without Italian fluency, but these paths generally seem like an amazing model for encouraging tourists to move slowly through lesser-visited locales and engage with the locals on a human level.
camminomaterano.it/
The Path
Particularly early on, the route is mostly quiet gravel paths through olive groves. In the later days, you get more interesting single-track along canyon walls. I found myself wishing for a bike in several sections.
You pass through fairly few towns, but typically get one or two hilltop villages per day with cool winding streets and impressive views. Conical trulli houses dominated the middle section, and the end had plenty of canyons, cave homes, and rock churches.
The markings are decent, but you’ll definitely want to supplement them with a GPX viewer. There are fairly frequent marked water stops that seem to involve asking at a farmhouse, but these would only be necessary in the summertime.
Food
The advertised 4-course “pilgrim menus” tended to be about 20 euros, so I gave up on ever eating at a restaurant and lived off of pizza, focaccia, and kebabs. A typical 200g slice, adequate for a meal, ran around 2 euros, and falafel pitas were under 4. Opening hours tend to be annoyingly infrequent and late, with most places only opening for dinner at 7:30 or 8.
Lodging
I was a bit surprised by the lack of cheap options on Booking/AirBnb – the lowest was typically between $40 and $55. But I almost always had a fairly luxurious apartment all to myself, with a full kitchen, work area, etc.
Weather
Most days were on the verge of shorts weather, but I was most often in a light puffy and balaclava. Conditions oscillated between intense sunshine and heavy cloud clover. One day of sporadic storms was sufficient to kill off my supposedly waterproof Pixel 6.
Getting There
AirFrance got me into Naples and out of Rome on super-comfy half-empty planes for about 38k miles and $300. The endpoints of Brindisi and Matera are served by frequent 10-euro buses. Denver immigration took all of 30 seconds.
Phone
Italy has lots of phone plans that give you 200GB for $8. But unlike everywhere else, there’s an additional $20 startup fee. I used an eSim instead, which was incredibly convenient and cost $5 for 5gb over 30 days – these don’t come with a phone number, but Skype and WhatsApp proved sufficient.
Creative use of bicycle rims
Stone pillars were often used to prop up olive trees
Most nights were spent in well-stocked private apartments
These trulli houses were prolific along parts of the walk
Random forest nativity scene
Simple pilgrim accommodation
Though we shared no common language, "the aunts" lavished me with braided cheese, scrambled eggs, wine, and cookies.
There were plenty of aggressive dogs along this walk, but this one was just craving attention.
These tiles might be in Gravinese, or perhaps Barese?
