It’s a remarkable rags-to-riches story. Carved into a remote ravine in the Basilicata countryside, in the instep of Italy’s boot, Matera was once dubbed ‘the shame of Italy’ for its caves that housed the city’s poor and exploited rural workers; by the 1970s, it’d become a ghost town, the first time the settlement had been uninhabited in 10,000 years. Yet a decade later, its evocative beauty lay the foundations for an extraordinary revival, thanks to a group of enterprising local creatives (many descended from the original inhabitants) who spotted its potential.
These days, the city’s churches jostle for space with boutique hotels, galleries and restaurants that have themselves been repurposed from former cave dwellings. Matera now has UNESCO status, was Europe’s 2019 Capital of Culture and has even drawn the gaze of Hollywood via Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and the latest Bond film.
Still, Matera’s local traditions and resilient spirit have proved as durable as its stone foundations. Today, the city is surely one of the country’s most extraordinary and beguiling destinations.
DAY ONE CAVES & CULTURE
Morning
Daniel Craig might have raced an Aston Martin through Matera’s cobbled alleyways, but a more productive way to explore
