Food and Wine Tour between the Patriarchs Olives and the Oil Temples

This was a really grear tour. It was lovely to see outside Matera. We were picked up in Matera centre and driven to beautiful olive groves just outside Matera. There we heard about the olive trees and tasted some olive oil. We then progressed on to a beautiful abandoned Masseria and heard some history about that and local customs. Then we were brought to an old cave dwelling cut into the limestone rock that had amazing views of the valley. We didn't expect this and it was quite amazing. We finished off at sundown back at the masseria eating a local salad dish we assembled together which was very delicious. A really great experience. Highly recommended

Giuseppe was an excellent guide. He explained methods used for extracting the olives from the trees and showed us the different types of trees. Then, after tasting the oil, we drove to an ancient cave and learned about the primitive ways that families lived in caves, then later, stone structures. Finally, we tasted Matera bread salad with olive oil. Not only did he do an excellent job of explaining the olive oil process, he was very personable.

It was really unique experience. We didn't expect such an awesome evening in Matera:) We had a tour with Emanuele and Giovanni and we were amazed by their knowledge about olives and their attitude. There were only two of us and they agreed to organized the tour for us. We couldn't choose better way to spend the evening :) A lot of knowledge, interesting places and delicious food and olive oils of course. Thank you very much!

This tour is not what it is advertised at. It’s a rambling walk by a guide that appears to be making it up as he goes along. First we were taken to an olive farm owned by the tour guide. We were also given a slice of bread here, a sprig of oregano, shown some dead orchids and asked to tie a ribbon round the olive tree (not sure why). We then travelled in cars to an abandoned farm building which was unsafe and shown a church which was boarded up with wire and which we could peer through. We went into one of the derelict building which had lots of scaffolding g poles in but not much else of interest. We then took a small walk where we were given paper pouches with 2 small circles of pepperoni, three small black olives and a thin and small slice of cheese. It was not clear why we had been taken here or what this part of the tour was about. We were then shown a gorge and asked to follow the guide. It was dangerous so 3 of our party of four did not partake. Our 4th returned and also reaffirmed it was unsafe (the ground underfoot wasn’t safe and it was steep) the group had been taken to a privately owned house - again for what reason no one was sure. The group returned up the path where an inch of wine was given out and the tour guide gave us some more bread with tomatoes and raw red onion and an apricot. This was the extent of the food and wine on this food and wine tour. It was hands down the worst tour I’ve ever been on and as such I respectfully asked afterwards for a partial refund. The response was rude and unprofessional. I can’t see what the point would have been to say on the tour we weren’t enjoying ourselves, the tour content itself was of such poor quality improvements wouldn’t have been possible. Pay attention that most of the five star reviews are in Italian. I wonder how many are genuine. Forewarned is forearmed.

This guided tour was out of my expectations in a great way!! The tour guide - Prof. Francesco was very accommodating as I missed my original appointment, they rescheduled my appointment for the following day which I was very grateful otherwise I would have missed the opportunity to enjoy what would have offered by this wonderful tour. This guided tour was very well thought out with the opportunity to see the orchard of beautiful olive trees, taste the local snacks, track the little wild plants which I could have easily missed, and follow the trail to an abandoned church community and a cave house!!! It was absolutely AMAZING ( stupefacente!) The food was being prepared effortlessly by Giovanni ( co- host/ singer). Giovanni brought his hand made primitive musical instrument and sang us a folk song which beautifully ended our trail in the cave house. When you come to Matera, you must take this tour. What can be better than hanging out with the locals and experiencing their culture in their own lands of beauty!!