Matera (Italy)

Matera

Edie: "Our town looks like thousands of cave houses tumbling down the hill, right down to the ravine. Some places you look at, you think they are just normal modern houses or cafés, but when you actually go inside they are really caves hidden in the hill that have been made into cave houses." 

 

'The rock church' - Chiesa di Santa Maria d'Idris, with 12th to 17th century frescoes.
Della: "We went to another church with lots more frescoes. It was very old and mouldy."

The many cats were a highlight of the girls' visit to Matera

 

Piazza di San Pietro Caveoso

Edie: "We went to a cave house from the olden days where peasants and their animals used to live. There were only three beds and 11 people!"



Our own cave house was much more comfortable.
From Della's diary: "Today I woke up and had a strange feeling. It was because we were in a cave!"

Jen:

Walking through - or, should I say, up and down - the streets of Matera, you can almost forget which century you're in. There's a reason it's been the location for the shooting of movies including Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ.
The town is riddled with sassi - cave dwellings built into the edge of a beautiful ravine. These days, many of the sassi have been converted into tourist apartments (like the one we stayed in), but they weren't so romantic and cosy 50 years ago. In the 1950s, more than half the population lived in these cave houses with no electricity, plumbing, sewerage. On average there were six children per household and the infant mortality rate was 50%. Malaria was rife. Publication of an article by Carl Levi sparked government action - 15,000 people were moved into new housing schemes.
The Matera sassi are now UNESCO-listed. The town's a wonderful mix of beautifully restored houses (including sassi) and churches and dilapidation, with ugly apartment buildings in the newer outskirts. There were some really good vantage points to see the gorge leading up to rough, abandoned caves leading up to inhabited caves and 'above-ground' houses, with modern apartment buildings above.
Churches built into the rock house ancient frescoes. We loved letting ourselves get lost in the maze of streets (except the time we were starving, hot, and there wasn't a restaurant in sight!). We had some of the best meals of our trip at a  restaurant across the road from our cave apartment - including pasta with black and white truffles (it was truffle season!). An amazing experience - will definitely head back one day.