Private Guided Walking Tour in Sassi of Matera

Starting from the meeting point in Piazza Vittorio Veneto in front of Banca di Napoli you will walk through the upper part of the historical city of Matera with the splendid baroque churches and elegant 18th centuary buildings and admire the Sassi, Sasso Barisano and Sasso Cavioso from the panoramic terraces. In the meanwhile behind the information about the city you will get also some suggestions were to taste and buy the most typical gastronomic specialities of Matera, then you will go down in Sassi visiting Cavioso, the oldest and most characteristic quoter of the Sassi where you will visit two very particular museums. Be ready to go up and down and do numerous steps, so the comfortable shoes are required. You will learn how the people lived in this place for many centauries "shame of Italy" became the UNESCO world heritage and one of the most visited places in South Italy.

The casa-grotta is the traditional cave-house of the Sassi of Matera where peasants' families used to live at least up the post-war period. You will visit one in the quoter Casalnuovo. Why visit exactly this one. It is one of the biggest cave dwelling in Sassi. It is made of several rooms, each one dedicated to the living of family or stall for farm animal, cellar. Under the floor there is a cistern to keep the rain water, the ancient system that people used for many centuries until the modern aqueduct brought to Matera and the reason, why Matera today is the UNESCO heritage.

In Matera there are more then 170 rock churches, excavated from tuff stone, but you will see the one of the oldest, biggest of them The rupestrian church of Santa Lucia alle Malve is the first female monastic settlement of the Benedictine Order, dating back to the 8th century, and the most important in the history of the city of Matera. In this church you will see very ancient frescoes of Saints, some even dating back a millennium, so wonderfully preserved.