Must-SeeAmalfi Coast and Capri
Campania
About 105 miles away
Pastel villages clinging to cliffs above the sea, with Positano, Ravello and the Isle of Capri.
Guide Coming Soon
Sassi di Matera
Two whole neighborhoods of cave houses, churches and stairways carved into a limestone ravine.
- Open
- Always
- Price
- Free
- Time Needed
- Half a day
- Address
- Sasso Caveoso, 75100 MateraDirections
- Getting There
- Steps lead down from Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
Why Go
People have lived in caves here since prehistoric times, and over the centuries they built houses, courtyards and churches in front of them. By the 1950s families lived with their animals in crowded, unhealthy caves, and the government moved them out; since the 1990s the Sassi have been restored, and they were European Capital of Culture in 2019.
Films from The Passion of the Christ to a James Bond chase were shot here.
Nearby in Matera
Go Next
1–3 of 6
Must-See
Must-SeeNaples
Campania
About 124 miles away
Southern Italy's loud, beautiful capital, with a great archaeology museum and the home of pizza.
Full Guide
Worth a DetourPuglia and Matera
Puglia and Basilicata
Matera's ancient cave city, Alberobello's cone-roofed trulli, and whitewashed seaside towns.
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