Le Grotte della Civita: Caveman for a night

A hotel in a truly jaw-dropping setting – a UNESCO World Heritage site, in fact. Today you can stay in the prehistoric caves of Matera in Southern Italy without fear of plague or cholera (something that was not always the case).
First, let’s look the area as it is today: cafés, shops, supermarkets and all positively teeming with Vespa scooters. Initially, Matera seems a city like any other in Southern Italy, sitting on the border between Basilicata and Apulia. World Heritage? Why? Then you turn a corner – and suddenly you could believe you’re in the streets of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. The towering rock on the edge of a deep canyon is furrowed by countless caves, perched above a sand-coloured, weathered clutch of small houses and ramshackle churches. It’s a place with a certain biblical aura – Pasolini filmed much of his 1965 film The Gospel According to St. Matthew here, and it was also the stage for many of Mel Gibson’s scenes in The Passion of the Christ.


The caves of Matera, called the Sassi (meaning ‘stones’), are considered to be one of the oldest settlements in the world. As much as 9,000 years ago, Neolithic farmers lived in the steep rocky slopes of the rugged river valley – and right up until the middle of the 20th Century, the caves were inhabited. It is a dark place, and historically it was marked by poverty and disease. People in rags dwelt here, along with sheep and goats, and malaria and typhoid. In the 1950s, Italy cleared the Sassi and some 20,000 people were relocated. It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that these unique settlements were rediscovered, adopted shortly afterwards as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and carefully renovated over the following years.


Now, 18 of the caverns offer overnight accommodation. The Italian idea of ‘Albergo Diffuso’, in which historical sites are made habitable with the smallest possible changes, was extended to the Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita to create a truly unique hotel experience. Just as a monk from the 15th Century might have enjoyed candlelight in the silence of stone caves, so too can the modern visitor – but the latter can, if a little chilly, slide into the hot water of a modern designer bathtub. Fortunately, TV and telephone are not available but, next morning, breakfast incorporating regional specialities is served in an old stone church.

Related Links More information on the Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita can be found at www.sextantio.it.

Text: Jan Baedeker (Classic Driver)
Photos: Sextantio

CUSTOM NORTON COMMANDO

We first happened across this amazing Norton Commando eight months ago. It’s now gracing the pages of Tank Moto, a super-stylish new quarterly from the publishers of Fuel Magazine.

When I first saw this 1969 Norton, I’d have bet big money that it was from one of the established Japanese workshops. But it’s from my old backyard—Sydney, Australia.

Damian Bombardiere bought his Commando on the cheap from eBay three years ago. “The seller mentioned a bottom-end noise, but I found it was simply a loose tappet.” With non-matching numbers and a bizarre stepped backbone frame—perhaps to suit a short rider—Damian rode the Norton for a year while debating what to do with it.

“I decided to create a street track-dirt track-cafe racer hybrid. And after a year of building, here we have it.” Damian ditched the frame and picked up a stock frame with the rear loop already cut out. He narrowed and shortened the new frame, rebuilt and shortened the forks, and reinstalled the motor.

The engine seemed in good condition, so Damian just ground the valves and added a Joe Hunt magneto. But since then, a cam follower has disintegrated and destroyed the internals. “A bottom end rebuild was in order, so I called on JS Motorsport,” he says.

Damian also added lightened pistons, Carillo rods and a Stage 1 race cam. By the time he’d finished, he’d added a bucketload of extra power and shaved off around 12 kg in weight.

The headers are from BUB, and Damian converted the carburetion to a single Mikuni. There’s a Sparx capacitor with a hidden battery in the seat cowl to handle lighting duties. The pan and cowl are custom, upholstered by Damian’s wife, and new alloy rims complete the build. The only work that was outsourced was a rewire, done by Matt Joyce.

It’s a simple build, when compared to many customs. But sometimes simple is best—and this is one of the best Nortons we’ve seen for a long time.

For more images of this bike, get the premiere issue of Tank Moto, featuring the photography of Luke Ray—the man behind Fuel—and words from Geoff Baldwin ofReturn of the Cafe Racers. It’s got over 140 pages of custom motorcycle goodness and can be delivered worldwide. If you’re in Australia, even better: You’ll likely find Tank Moto in your local newsagent.

from BIKEEXIF

Norton John Player Replica by Peter Williams

from Twowheelsblog

40 years ago, rider/designer Peter Williams won the 1973 TT F750 with the ‘revolutionary’ - for those times - Norton John Player Special, basically the first racer with a monocoque frame, and now the man responsible for the birth and success of that bike has announced that he is now planning to build and sell 25 replicas of the model through its newly foundedPeter Williams Motorcycles. This is not all though as the nice Mr. Williams plans to ‘continue’ the project creating a also a brand new motorcycle, inspired by its famous predecessor but with a monocoque frame made of modern carbon and based on a concept developed by Williams in 1990, when he was working for Lotus.

For those not in the know, Peter Williams has a long history behind him: as a motorcycle racer, in 60s and 70s he managed to win a World GP race in the now defunct 350 cc classe and collected several podium finishes in the 500 cc world championship (to old premier class); as an engineer, he is responsible for the introduction of some new technologies in motorcycle racing such as alloy wheels and disc brakes.

The replicas of Williams’ old Norton John Player Special will be near-perfect copies of the original bike, which in 1973 also established a new lap record on the Mountain Course with an average of 107.27 miles per hour (about 172.63 km/h). Some changes will be made ​​to the stainless steel frame to make it less ‘complicated’ than that of the four original bikes, but all 25 units will be handmade just like the their predecessors. The dry weight of the final version will be around 152 kg.

Quite obviously, the engine will be once again a 748 cc air-cooled parallel twin that will be realized in collaboration with Norton ’specialist’ Mick Hemmings, which used some drawings provided by Williams himself. Wheels and forks too will be tailored to mimic the original, though further details will be announced later on.

It goes without saying that such a piece of work won’t come cheap: the final price should be in the 65,000 pounds area (76,400 euros at current exchange rates), which immediatly qualifies it as stuff for wealthy collectors only, but the money raised with the 25 JPN Replica will be invested in the realization of the aforementioned new model.

mécanique !!