Pudgy

We have a villa in southern Puglia (south of Lecce) in a small village named Scorrano. Want to take a day trip to Matera however I am having difficulty figuring out if it is just too long a drive. We will have a car. And once there, does one need an entire day to explore it or would it be reasonable to think you could spend a half day? Would it be best to visit once we leave Puglia and are headed back up to Rome? Has anyone stayed in a wonderful hotel in Matera which they'd recommend?

kja

Google maps says the drive is 2.5 hours, rome2rio puts it closer to 3 hours. (You can, of course, check those sites yourself, and viamichelin.com is also a good source for estimating travel times.)

I would not have been satisfied with 1/2 day for Matera -- I gave it 1.5, and would have used more had I had a car at the time and so been able to include the caves outside the town itself. YMMV.

So I, personally, would visit it enroute from Puglia to Rome. JMO.

While in Matera, I was extremely pleased with the Locanda di San Martino, which still gets great reviews.
http://www.locandadisanmartino.it/?lang=en

Holly_uncasdewar

I didn't stay in the Locanda di San Martino, as kja did, but I can recommend the Ristorante Nadi which you can find on the map in the hotel's link when you zoom in 2-3 times. I, too, would recommend an overnight, rather than 1/2 day.

Pudgy

thx so much all. I have booked an overnight in Matera!

raincitygirl

I second Holly's recommendation of Ristorante Nadi, we had a delicious lunch there.

MyriamC

Good that you booked an overnight in Matera. It gets quite busy with large tourgroups during the day. It's magical in the evening. Try Rist. Francesca or Trattoria Caveoso for dinner. Both excellent!