Adverts

 Holiday guide to Basilicata, imagine a region that has miles of white sandy beaches on one coast, picturesque rocky bays on the other, two mountainous national parks and one of the oldest cities in the world. Add lots of warm sunshine, plus good food and wine, and you can expect the region to be a tourist mecca, full of hotels and tour buses. Yet Basilicata, the arch and back of Italy's boot, has all of the above, but – thanks to a history of poverty and difficult access – little mass tourism.

Although larger than any other English county, Basilicata is home to fewer than 600,000 people. And it shows: with the exception of a few very hot weeks in summer, the region is quiet, with beaches and roads (now very good) devoid of crowds. Access from the UK is also easy, with cheap flights to Bari in neighboring Puglia. Naples airport is hours away, but as Basilicata's beaches and main sights are in the south, Bari is more suitable.

What to see and do

The Sassi cave houses of Matera are believed to be the first human habitations in Italy, explored 9,000 years ago. But in the 20th century they were places of inhuman misery and penury. Author Carlo Levi, exiled to Basilicata by the Fascists in the 1930s, wrote: “In these dark holes with walls cut out of the earth, I saw some miserable beds, and some hanging rags... I have never in my life seen such a picture of poverty.”

Adverts

The Sassi was empty for decades after the war, its inhabitants moved away, but from the 1980s people began to move in, modernizing caves and converting them into hotels, bars and shops. Matera gained UNESCO's list of world heritage sites in 1993 and is now more prosperous, but there have been no sudden changes in appearance or atmosphere. The steep steps, rocky outcrops and stone alleys could be Biblical-era Babylon or Jerusalem, and have been used in films.

Now, preparing for its year as European Capital of Culture in 2019, Matera is more striking than beautiful – Levi wrote of its “painful beauty” – but few other living cities in Europe have such a magical air of royal antiquity.

The Sassi is in two sections, the Barisano and the older Caveoso, where the views are best. There are over 150 rock-cut churches here and in the nearby countryside, many of which can be visited (tickets from €2.50 for one church to €6 for three). Less visited than most – it's a 15-minute walk south along the Gravina ravine – is 13th-century Santa Barbara, with impressive cave paintings.

The harsh life of cave-dwelling peasants is recreated at Casa Grotta (adult €2) in Vico Solitario, with two furnished caves complete with animals and Papa enthroned in a stone latrine in one corner.

Adverts

Beneath Piazza Vittorio Veneto, the Palombaro Lungo is a 16-meter series of water tanks dug in the early 1800s to keep Matera, high on its limestone hill, supplied with water in hot, dry summers. A €3 ticket (under 18s free) includes a guided tour (four per day in English) of cisterns waterproofed with terracotta and porcelain. They are as impressive as any cathedral, albeit excavated from the earth rather than rising into the sky.

Matera is not all about old stones; There are new Musma contemporary sculpture museums (closed on Mondays) in the 16th-century Palazzo Pomarici, whose collection includes works by Picasso and De Chirico, as well as striking modern works in plastic, glass and metal.