Giorni 10 & 11

Matera

Day 10 consisted of a long drive from Taormina in Sicily over to the lower part of the boot in Italy. We arrived in the early evening and enjoyed a dinner walking distance from our hotel. On day 11, we were taken on a guided tour with a local guide throughout the Matera.

Matera is known for the Sassi, cave dwellings on which the town was built. These dwellings have been occupied as far back as prehistoric times. Homes were built out of tufa, volcanic soil and caves in the rock that could be easily carved out. In the book, Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi in the 1950's-1960's, the world was made aware of the Sassi and the extreme poverty in which the residence lived. Families cohabited with their farm animals in these small cave dwellings. After the publication of Carlo Levi's book, over fifteen thousand residence were relocated into modern housing. It was not only eye-opening but also humbling to imagine the extreme and primitive living conditions these people lived only forty-fifty years ago.

Today, the Sassi has been declared a World Heritage site and much of the Sassi is being renovated with plumbing, electricity, and other modern facilities. Ironically, presently, the renovated portion of the town has become the homes for the wealthy. Recently, the Sassi was used as the location where Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of Christ as well as The Nativity Story were filmed.