Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, since 10th millennium

B.C. Its historical center denominated Sassi, where cave-houses are, along with the Park of
Rupestrian churches was designed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993. Knowing about
these cave-houses I decided to book a room in a sasso.

I started my trip from Rome in by bus, charged with my heavy baggage carrying my luggage
with my formal clothes to dress formal and sportive sportswear. Moreover, I took with me
two cameras, a reflex camera and a little camera. Furthermore, I got with me some biscuits,
sweets and juices for the journey.

Once in Matera, there is a lot to see in this village. I went alone with the advantage that I could
organize my trip at my convenience. When I started walking through the Sassi I was impressed
to see the marvelous sights. I started going up and down in the ascent and descent rock stairs.
Through these patches I could see the yellow tones of the houses matching the rock color of
the surroundings, or the high escarpment at the border of the village next to the valley named
Gravina. When I went through the village I was surprised and became aware that the old part
is not so small. It is like a labyrinth with a lot of stairs that go up and down, passing through
beautiful arches and narrow corridors. This old part is known as Sassi what are cave-houses
built in and with rock. Their façades are like that of a normal house, but when you come in the
cave-house you discover that inside there is a descent path to a cave with irregular or
semicircular forms like tunnels in the ceiling. A tour guide told us that the rock they excavated
served as construction material to build the house above. In general, inside the sassi they keep
some original items specially designed to work the fields, to weave or to cook pasta, for
example. In addition to the beautiful cave-houses, in Matera one can visit a lot of churches, the
cathedral, the bakeries or “panificio”. Especially in this area, they use hard wheat flour or
semolina to bake bread, which gives it a yellowish colour and more weight to the bread. This
bread has a little more consistency but is heavy to digest.

On Christmas I could see the live manger. It consisted of great actors representing short
theatre plays about the annunciation or Jesús’ birth in Jerusalén. Matera is the ideal place to
represent this play because of its similarity with Jerusalén. In fact, many religious films were
filmed here before. In addition, the council organized a variety of cultural events that prevent
you getting boring.

The sassi is a peaceful and charming place which I recommend to visit to everyone. The only
negative part is the expensive and low quality of meals in restaurants. Although I had the
opportunity of trying a typical plate of Matera, Orecchiette with broccoli and fried crunchy
bread what I thought was a very tasty dish. Orecchiette are small pieces of ear shapped pasta.
Another important thing to take into account in this period is the cold weather. I had to buy
there a pair of gloves because I couldn’t keep my hands outside my pockets.