During the summer, I went to a few places in the south of Italy and thought I'd share two really great fig-related finds. First, Matera.
Matera
Matera is a city in the southern Italian region of Basilicata that has been continuously inhabited for about fifteen thousand years - from at least 13,000 BCE until about 1952 CE. Yeah.
People lived in that.
Matera broadly comprises three areas: the modern city, the Sassi, and the mountains with prehistoric caves. While the mountains and caves are a good late afternoon excursion, the Sassi are really the main tourist areas.
The modern Sasso, or "Sasso Barisano"
Carved out of the mountain, the entire city is a freaking staircase. If you plan on going, make sure you have good knees, good shoes, and naproxen. (I also recommend knowing some basic Italian if you plan on going this far south. Plenty of people speak decent English but aside from folks at the hotel and maybe one waiter at any given restaurant, running into English speakers isn’t as easy as it is in major tourist cities.)
And there are free figs everywhere. There are full on trees growing out of crevices in the Sassi, and some of the fruit is absolutely stellar.
Much of the Sassi are undergoing restoration. The older Sasso's crumbling infrastructure has forced its native inhabitants to abandon great portions of the area. So unfortunately, quite a large number of the trees are just out of reach, even in the modern Sasso.
Overlooking the older and largely abandoned Sasso called, "Sasso Caveoso"
This cluster was full of figs for the most part, but anything within arm's reach was bare.
Some trees, like the sirens luring you to your death, grow overlooking cliffs' edges. Quite the fall.
The good news is, where there’s an abandoned house in the Sasso Barisano, there’s often a fruit tree - whether fig, persimmon, quince, whatever. But just make sure there’s solid ground going all the way from you to the tree if you get adventurous, which I don’t actually recommend. There’s plenty of figs that you can just grab while walking to a museum or something.
You'd have to jump a fence of an abandoned property to get to this tree.
Picked while walking back to the hotel.
This one was both the most beautiful looking and the weirdest tasting fig I've ever had; its flavor was like very sweet zucchini. Not complaining, though.
I Giardini di Pomona / The Pomona Gardens (Valle d’Itria, Puglia)
Further southeast, you’ll find yourself in the region of Puglia. The Valle d'Itria is located in the center of Puglia, near the cities of Cisternino, Alberobello, and Martina Franca.
Disclaimer: The way I talk about the Pomona Gardens sounds like and advertisement, I know - forgive me - but I really enjoyed myself and I recommend a visit. Anyway, I would imagine this is similar to visiting Monserrat Pons or UC Davis.
Dottato di Élia - One of my absolute favorites.
I took a tour of the gardens and I must have sampled somewhere around 20 fig varieties. So I think I ate - seriously, truly -something shy of 35 - 40 figs. I felt like absolute trash for a few hours but getting there was delicious.
Mattepinta - One of the local varieties. Exceptional quality.
Mattepinta
Edit: Rigato del Salento and Grise de St. Jean
Sultane
Verdesca, another local variety. Excellent quality.
There were so. many. more. I have a bunch more photos but like... you get it.
Some background on the Pomona Gardens: Several years ago, Paolo Belloni created this garden to act as a conservatory for ancient fruit. He and his team grow about 400 varieties of figs, many of which are genuinely ancient, that’s to say that they have been sampled, selected, and propagated by peasants for hundreds of years. They also grow figs from other regions of Italy, France, and other countries in Africa and the Middle East. In addition to figs, they also grow many other species including apples, pomegranate, olives, and produce an exceptional olive oil.
It’s a tremendous experiment that focuses on preserving the terroir of the Valle d’Itria by using non-disruptive agricultural practices. This way, not only will visitors and eaters experience the quality of the land, but agriculturalists and hobby gardeners will know what naturally works best for that region.
Also, if you’re able, you can buy some cuttings or some baby trees. Which sucks for me because I live in the United States. Anyway, I'm pretty sure most if not all tours require a reservation and there is an admission price. I recommend driving there.
Again, I'm not getting paid to promote anything - it's just awesome.