MFC: Matera, Italy
Let’s talk about Matera
Part of My Favorite Cities series, in which I pick a favorite city/spot from each country I’ve visited.
As I’ve talked about before on this blog, I did a two month study abroad in Italy.
For about seven weeks, me and twenty-something other students studied Italian and Italian cinema in Rome, living with host families and eating buckets of gelato per day. It was an incredible experience, but the most coveted parts of it were the weekend trips. Antonella, our director, scheduled optional weekend excursions to places in Italy she felt were most important to visit. Often, these were places that we, as fresh bb Americans, wouldn’t know about.
We were excited, of course. Pompeii! Capri! Naples! But the one destination we knew nothing about—and the one every Rome Study Program alumnus raved about—was Matera.
When I once asked Antonella what her favorite weekend trip is, she told me that she loves them all—but if she did happen to love one more than the others…it might start with an M.
So, what is Matera? What makes it so special?
Here’s the history lesson:
Matera is an ancient city in the Bascilata region of Southern Italy, established sometime in 251 BC but inhabited for potentially thousands of years before that. (It’s debatably considered to be the first place humans settled in Italy, with evidence for humans living there since 7000 BC.)
It’s known for its Sassi di Matera, or its cave dwellings. Foder’s English Guide states: “Matera is the only place in the world where people can boast to be still living in the same houses of their ancestors of 9,000 years ago” (source).
…While this is also debated, it’s true that the city is chock-full of sassi. For decades, the city had fallen into extreme poverty and disrepair, and its caves were considered unsanitary, dangerous, and decrepit. Things started changing by the 1980s, however, and the city started receiving more tourist attention for those very same caves.
By 1993, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in 2019, a European Capital of Culture. Because the city also resembles ancient sites particularly those in and around Jerusalem, it’s been used as a setting for filmmakers, including “A Nativity Story” (2006) and “The Passion of the Christ” (2004). It’s also sometimes used for non-Christian themed films, like 2017’s “Wonder Woman” and an entire list of Italian films.
Halfway through June of 2016, the Rome Study Program group made it to Matera after a long bus ride south from Rome.
We headed straight to our bed and breakfast at La Corte, which was, of course, rooms built into the caves. It was humid, maybe a little damp—but we were in a cave. What do you expect? It was one of the most interesting places I’ve stayed.
First up the next day was our tour. We were led by an archeologist who lives in Matera. Though I forget her name, I remember she brought along her dog, a very scruffy maybe-Irish-wolfhound-maybe-mutt, who our guide declared was the real archeologist.
Our tour guide took us to the Matera Cathedral, built sometime in the 1200s, then around the city, climbing steep stairs and poking our heads into dark caverns. She explained how the people who lived here, including Romans and ancient Italians, would use these caves for shelter, pointing out what was left of furniture built into the rock, ancient firebeds, etc.
We then stopped by MUSMA, Matera’s museum of contemporary sculpture. One part of the museum goes deep into the ground, the air naturally ten degrees cooler; a wonderful break from the summer sun.
The surrounding landscape felt like we were running around Rohan in the Lord of the Rings. The view was vast and full of rocky hills. Many of them were hiking trails, though they warned us against them because snakes are common in the summer season.
beware, snakes!
After, we were guided to the town’s main square, which is used for festivals (and in fact, the town was gearing up for one as we were there).
We ate dinner, which was several courses of pasta followed by espresso, and then were let loose to run around the town.
We grabbed giant gallons of red wine for about 2 euros each (we were college students, of course we did) and began the night.
Matera at dusk and at night is indescribable. I only have crappy iphone 4 photos to give you, but I hope you can get a sense of how, as far as the eye can see, homes are stacked onto each other.
The most memorable bit of the night was when we went into Casa Cava, a concert hall. Out front was dedicated to rock music, with vendors selling posters and albums by various rock legends.
But inside was more about blues, set inside a giant bubble of a cave that made for the most incredible acoustics you’ve ever heard. Several musicians came on, strumming guitars and belting vocals, and all I could do was sit there and pinch myself.
The night ran pretty late, and we woke up the next morning a little bit hungover. We ate breakfast, prepared by our bed and breakfast hosts, and left early for Bari and then back to Rome.
For this MFC pick, I almost chose Rome or Capri. Rome, certainly, will forever have my heart. But there’s too much to write about, and everyone knows Rome. Capri, likewise, is Tourist Central, and as gorgeous as it is, I have nothing to add.
But Matera? Matera has history, art, cheap wine, and good food. The best pizza I had in ALL of Italy (did not try Napoli’s pizza. Forgive me, but our bus broke down in Napoli and we went off schedule) was in Matera, near the main square.
There’s a charm to it that wikipedia articles can’t capture, a sort of age-worn charm you can only find in an ancient town built into the rock.
I tell everyone I meet who’s interested in visiting Italy to go to Matera, and I’m often met with a shrug. People don’t know about it, which is a shame. Luckily, that’s beginning to change.
Of course, a healthy tourism industry can be a double-edged sword, but if any place in Italy deserves more recognition and the economic prosperity of tourism, it would be Matera.
RSP 2016 in Matera
Thanks for reading!