Matera, Italy 🇮🇹
Located in the little known Basilicata province of Italy, it is nestled between Campagna and Puglia. Matera itself is the third oldest city in the world, coming after Aleppo and Jericho.
Matera is characterized by the rocky outcrop that it is both built on and in. Many of the buildings include some kind of cave dwelling dug directly into the rock. Churches, shops, cisterns, and dwellings are all buried deep into the earth, both out of necessity and ingenuity. Going subterranean helps to regulate the temperature inside and reduces the need to transport building materials. Many of these cave dwellings were inhabited until the 1950's, when they had to be evacuated due to poor living conditions. Since then they have been refurbished into museums, shops, and hotels with modern infrastructure.
Now Matera sits as an incredible living museum to allow your imagination to run wild trying to imagine what it would have been like to live there many millennia ago.
Getting Here
Matera is a location best reached by car. About a 2.5 hour drive from Naples it is definitely out of the way. Most of the Sassi area of Matera is a pedestrian zone with very limited vehicle access, so make sure that you speak to your hotel for the best option for unloading and parking.
It is even further by train, taking 4 hours from Napoli Centrale, but it can be done. It is much closer to Bari, so if you happen to be there for a cruise this would be a great day or weekend trip to add on.
