Matera, Italy

Italy 2024 Chapter 5 - Matera is the oldest continually inhabited city in Italy, maybe the third oldest in the world. Matera has witnessed a remarkable transformation over the millennia. People have been living in this valley since the 10th millennium BC and it’s gone from an ancient settlement to abject poverty to a tourism re-birth. The Sassi of Matera are cave dwellings that were in use as recently as the 1950s when the Italian government forcibly removed the last families living here. Once, called the Shame of Italy, for its population's desperate poverty and disease. Now, the ancient town is a UNESCO world heritage site.

The town of Matera was founded by the Roman Lucius Caecilius Metellus in 251 BC who called it Matheola. After the Arab conquest of Bari in 840, Matera came under Islamic rule for two hundred years before Byzantine and Norman rule. Now, the town is a maze of small streets with dead ends and is a perfect place to wander as it is one of the most photogenic places in Italy.

We spent two nights here in the middle of the Sassi and took a quick side trip to Alberobello to see the famous Trulli houses and the white city of Locorotondo.