Sassi District's Cave Dwellings, Matera

Matera, a southern province of Basilicata, is perched on the edge of a deep ravine.  The town is divided into a bustling upper district and the quieter lower Sassi district.  The caves of the Sassi district is the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region, which is why it gained  UNESCO World Heritage listing in 1993.  The first inhabited zone dates from the Palaeolithic, while later settlements illustrate a number of significant stages in human history.

It is believed that such caves provided refuge for the monks from Eastern Anatolia from the 8th – 13th centuries. They were taken over by peasants in the 15th century, but by the 18th century some of these caves had evolved into fairly grand mansions and convents.  Unfortunately, by the 1950s the Sassi district went into decline and was overtaken by squalor and poverty.

Between the 1950s and the 1970s, when Sassi district’s 15,000 inhabitants were forcibly relocated in public housing developments on the outskirts of town, the cave dwellings were entirely without modern conveniences.  Italy was undergoing its postwar economic boom phase at the time, and the image of agricultural labourers living in caves and without sanitation did not sit well with the country’s new sense of propriety.

By the mid-1990s, however, local activists were pressing for a review of Matera’s underground heritage.  There was a realization of the value of the warren of abandoned dwellings, as well as the numerous rock-hewn churches, many of them decorated with Byzantine paintings. When the Sassi district gained World Heritage listing, opportunistic people started buying up abandoned buildings and their caves, or restoring what they found beneath their own homes.

Today the district is humming with life again. Small hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, wine bars and restaurants as well as an impressive Museum of Contemporary Sculpture have sprung up in great settings.  Caves have been immaculately cleaned out and furnished but still maintaining its archaic mystery. A prime example of this is the La Casa di Lucio Hotel. Comprising ten rooms and two suites in east-facing caves, their innermost reaches must once have been the sanctum of burial chambers.

Matera is a fascinating place and certainly worth a visit.

Map of Italy with major cities

A Suggested Route around Italy

A comprehensive tour of Italy would take a long time, and if limited to the usually visited sights would omit many interesting experiences. However, here is my offering, and I’d say this was a 24 day minimum (excluding Rome):

Note: links to the towns go to photo albums on the TravelSignposts website

Rome – Cerveteri/Tarquinia – Viterbo – Orvieto – Siena – San Gimignano – Florence – Pisa – Carrara – Portofino (Cinque Terre) – Genoa – Milan – Stresa (Lake Maggiore) – Como – Verona – Bolzano – Cortina d’Ampezzo – Brenta Canal – Venice (NOT Mestre) – Pomposa – Ravenna (St Apollinare in Classe) – Perugia – Assisi – Castel Gondolfo – Frascati – Pompeii – Sorrento – Capri – Positano (Amalfi Coast) – Bari – Matera – Castellana – Alberobello – Lecce – Taranto – Calabrian Mountains – Taormina – Syracuse – Ortygia Island – Piazza Armerina – Enna – Selinunte – Agrigento – Mondello – Palermo – Naples – Monte Cassino – Rome

Most of the standard Europe tours cover roughly the same major highlights, but miss out Sicily, the Genoa section, one or both of the Italian Lakes and Dolomite sectors, and the southeast sector round Alberobello. Distances are not huge and roads are good, so in many cases it would easily be possible to change the order I’ve given above without major difficulty.

Don’t know where a place is? Try this map from Google:

Other Italy pages:

Travel to Italy for more than a Roman holiday!

When to travel to Italy for your tour: weather and seasons

Useful facts, dates and links to help you plan your tour of Italy

Food in Italy: a brief gastronomic tour

Book your sightseeing tours or day-trips in Italy online

Book your hotel in Italy online

TOUR ROUTES IN ITALY: PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS