Dave and Vera's Blog: Day 6: Southern Italy (The Wonders of Matera)

Matera has been occupied on and off by humans for the last 20,000 years. It is considered the 3rd oldest city in the world; only Aleppo (whose ancient ruins were recently destroyed by IS) and Jericho are older. It is older than Jerusalem! For these and other reasons it has been made a World Heritage Site.

Pictures do not do this place justice. In fact, this picture was taken from the crucifixion hill used in Mel Gibson's 2003 movie "The Passion of Christ". The modern city sits above, while the Sassi, or cave dwellings sit below.

The Sassi are dug into the soft sandstone rock, complete with sea shells, that you see in this picture. The facade is made of the stone blocks that were cut out of the caves. Our hotel room is such a structure, modernized of course with all of the conveniences.

Churches like this one were also built right into the stone. We visited one dating back to the 12th century.

Remember I said that the region we are in was, and still is, the poorest in Italy. At one time, they lost about half their population to emigration. Most, I think, wound up in the USA. Matera was the poorest of the poor; so poor that the government decreed a forced evacuation of the Sassi in the 1950s and 1960s. The infant mortality rate was 50%, and diseases like malaria were rampant. The one we looked at had 11 people in it, plus farm animals like donkeys, pigs, chickens, goats, etc. Water was from a cistern which collected rain and sewage was dumped into an open ditch just outside.

Today, only 60 years later, the Sassi are becoming gentrified with young professionals moving back in, obviously adding a few amenities. The building code is strict to retain some of the character of this ancient city.

Today we had some pretty wild weather. Intermittent heavy rain and wind in the morning followed by a torrential downpour in the afternoon. Above is the view from our lunch time restaurant. We just sat there and enjoyed great Italian food with absolutely no pressure to leave. Rumor has it that this was caused by the remnant of Hurricane Joaquin, the storm off the US coast that indirectly provided much of the moisture for the floods in South Carolina.