Matera, the city of the Sassi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 and European Capital of Culture in 2019, Matera is among the oldest still inhabited cities in the world. A magical place that preserves, in its natural caves dug into the rock, the evidence of human settlements starting from the Paleolithic. When you visit Matera you have the sensation of entering a nativity scene, especially during the evening hours. Houses, churches, monasteries and hermitages are built in calcarenite (the so-called "tuff"), a very brittle rock, with a "negative architecture" meaning that material was not built but material was removed from the rock, digging it up, creating such an evocative scenario to have been chosen to set films such as "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson and "The Gospel according to Matthew" by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Discovering the Sassi means walking through the history of the city, moving between the rock churches, the underground tunnels and the cisterns, visiting the Cave Houses, evidence of the life of the people of Matera in the Sassi until the evacuation of 1958 and stopping at the many viewpoints that overlook a dizzying ravine to admire unique views and panoramas.