Matera, in the arch of Italy's boot, is one of the most extraordinary towns in Europe. Its old districts, the sassi, are a warren of houses, churches and streets carved directly into the soft rock of a ravine, lived in continuously for thousands of years. Once a national embarrassment of poverty, the sassi have been restored and reborn, and you can now sleep in a cave hotel where families lived within living memory.
A town carved from rock
Wandering the sassi is like walking through a stone honeycomb. Stepped lanes wind between houses that are part-built, part-excavated, with rock-cut churches hiding faded frescoes and viewpoints that open suddenly over the ravine. At dusk, when the honey-coloured stone glows and lamps flicker on across the hillside, it is unforgettable. Filmmakers have used it for ancient settings precisely because it looks like nowhere else.
What to do
- Get lost on foot; the sassi reward aimless wandering more than any checklist, though a guide brings the history alive.
- Visit a casa grotta, a cave house preserved as it was, to understand how people really lived here.
- Look across the ravine from the far rim for the classic view of the whole town stacked against the rock.
Getting there and staying
Matera is off the main lines, reached most easily by car or a connection through Bari, which keeps casual day-trippers down. Staying overnight, ideally in one of the cave hotels, is the whole point; the town transforms once the day visitors leave and you have the lamplit lanes to yourself.
The food of the region is simple and superb, built on bread, vegetables and good oil, and a meal in a cave restaurant rounds off the experience. Matera takes more effort to reach than the famous Italian cities, and that is exactly why it remains so special. It is a place that genuinely feels like nowhere else on earth.