Sassi Di Matera

Matera advertises itself as an open air museum, it is this and more. The area has been continuously inhabited for an estimated 9,000 years. Yet uniquely over this time period rather than adapt the environment to suit their needs the inhabitants seem to have adapted to the surrounding environment. Resulting in a community built around numerous caves on the sides of a steep ravine.

Once infamous for the poverty described by Carlo Levi, since gaining UNESCO status in 1993 the abandoned cave houses have been redeveloped into B&bs, hotels, restaurants, art galleries and even spas. You can spend many happy hours wandering the narrow alleyways and staircases that make up the Sassi but you will frequently end up looking down into the gorge at the edge of town. Take a walk down into the bottom of the ravine and enjoy the tranquil sound of the river whilst gazing up at the town clinging to the rock above. Then climb up to the rock church of Maria de Idris above Piazza Caveoso and look at the 700 year old frescoes of saints whilst imagining the importance of this temple in the 5,000 years prior to Christianity.

I lived in Puglia (Italy's "heel") for one year and I took time to travel a bit and see some of the small towns. One of them, Matera, was especially captivating. It has something indescribably. Perhaps that's why Mel Gibson chose as the backdrop for "Passion of the Christ."

UNESCO, the UN organization which takes care of education and culture, named it a World Heritage Site. It's one of the most singular, ancient, and extraordinary villages on Earth, a place which has captured the attention of artists from around the world (the famous Italian author Carlo Levi cited it in this book "Christ stopped at Eboli").

Wow, a unique experience. Sassi de Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a village where the cave-homes are bored directly into the rock. Once, the inhabitants of the "sassi" were obliged by leave, but now they've retaken their former homes and have opened them up for visitors.