Two Days in Matera: Descending into the World's Oldest City

Matera Cannot Be Understood in a Day

There are cities you visit and cities you inhabit, even if only for forty-eight hours. Matera belongs firmly to the second category. This is not a question of size — the Sassi can be walked in a few hours — but of depth. Literal and metaphorical depth. Matera is carved from rock, built upon itself over nine thousand years, layered like a human geology. Every alley that descends reveals another era; every church cut into the tufa harbours a fresco that no tourist guide has yet worn smooth.

Those who arrive from Bari or Naples in the early afternoon, photograph the Belvedere, rush through the Sasso Barisano, and leave that same evening convinced they have seen Matera carry home a beautiful but incomplete memory, like reading the first and last page of a novel. The UNESCO city requires quiet mornings, when the Sassi still belong to the cats and the few remaining residents, and evenings when the golden stone warms under low lights and the profile of the Murgia floats suspended in darkness.

Two days are not enough to exhaust Matera, but they are enough to understand it. This itinerary is built for those who want to truly descend, not merely look from above.

For accommodation, the choice of neighbourhood is already part of the experience: dove dormire a Matera gathers the best options, from sassi-hotels carved from ancient caves to bed and breakfasts in the Civita quarter.

Day 1 — The Sasso Barisano and the Heart of the Civita

Morning: the Cathedral and the Slow Descent

The first day belongs to the Sasso Barisano and the Civita quarter, the highest promontory of the historic city, the one that dominates the panorama and that was for centuries the centre of ecclesiastical and civic power. Arrive at Piazza Vittorio Veneto before nine. At that hour the piazza is still cool, the bar terraces are arranging their tables, and you can lean over the circular opening that reveals the Palombaro Lungo — the great underground cistern carved from the sixteenth century onwards, capable of collecting rainwater for the entire city. You will visit it properly on the second day; for now it is enough to look down and realise that Matera has always lived beneath itself as well.

From Piazza Veneto follow Via del Corso toward the Civita quarter. The Cathedral of Santa Maria della Bruna appears suddenly at the end of a narrow alley, and the contrast between the tightness of the passage and the breadth of the limestone facade is already a small visual shock. Built in the thirteenth century in Apulian Romanesque style, the cathedral has the solemn bearing of something that has witnessed everything: invasions, earthquakes, abandonments, rebirths. The interior preserves the Madonna della Bruna, the city's patron saint, and the medieval nativity scene by Altobello Persio, a work that deserves a prolonged pause because it tells Matera as the Materans of six centuries ago told it: a vertical city, a city of caves, a city sustained by prayer and tufa stone.

Leave the cathedral and descend toward the Sasso Barisano following one of the many stepped alleys. Do not hurry to find the right route: here getting lost is not an inconvenience, it is the method. Notice the old cave dwellings, many of which have been transformed into hotels or restaurants, but some of which still bear the traces of the poor habitation of a hundred years ago — the manger for animals that shared the space with the family, the small votive niche with the Madonna, the ceiling blackened by smoke. Carlo Levi wrote that this was "the national shame of postwar Italy." Today the same poverty has become UNESCO heritage. It is a transformation that Matera carries with a certain ambivalence.

Afternoon: Casa Noha and the Madonna de Idris

After lunch — find a place where you can order peperoni cruschi, those Senise peppers dried and fried until they crumble in the mouth, leaving a sweet, lightly smoky aftertaste, or a bowl of orecchiette with Lucanian meat ragù — head toward Casa Noha. It is a stop that many visitors skip and that is actually worth a generous hour: this sixteenth-century palace houses a multimedia narrative curated by the FAI that traces the thousand-year history of Matera through images, sounds and projections. It is not a traditional museum; it is almost a cinematic experience, and it helps to contextualise everything you have seen and will see. Leaving, you understand better why the Sassi have been inhabited continuously for nine thousand years — and why their history is far more complex than the simple binary of "shame/redemption" that tourist narratives tend to propose.

The afternoon continues with the Madonna de Idris, the most evocative rock-hewn church of the Sasso Barisano. It is carved directly into the rock of a ridge overlooking the Sasso Caveoso, and to reach it you climb an external staircase cut into the stone. The interior is small, almost claustrophobic, but the frescoes covering every centimetre of wall — dated between the tenth and seventeenth centuries, layered like the ages of the city — carry a visual force that large museums struggle to transmit. Without pompous artificial lighting, without plexiglass barriers, with simply the smell of damp stone and wax, you find yourself before figures of saints and Madonnas that seem still to be listening.

From the small external terrace of the Madonna de Idris you have one of the best panoramas over the Sasso Caveoso and the Murgia: keep it in mind, because tomorrow you will descend into it.

Evening: the MUSMA and the Illuminated Sassi

Before dinner, dedicate an hour to the MUSMA — the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture of Matera. It is housed in Palazzo Pomarici, a hypogeal building that develops partly within the rock, and the choice of spaces is never accidental: the sculptures dialogue with the natural cavities, with the low ceilings, with the half-light filtering through windows that open onto the ravine. The museum has a serious collection, not a mere cultural filler, and it closes the day with a contemporary register that balances the abundance of medieval history from the morning.

The evening in Matera is a question of light. When the sun sets beyond the Murgia, the Sassi turn a warm orange that then fades to gold, and the low lights that illuminate the alleys take the place of the sun almost without interruption. Take a long, aimless walk after dinner — start from Piazza Veneto, descend toward the Belvedere over the Sasso Caveoso, then climb back through the lanes of the Barisano. The day-trippers have gone, the Sassi are silent, and Matera at night resembles a city breathing slowly, as if it has been sleeping upon itself for ten thousand years.

At dinner, seek out the Matera IGP bread: it has a thick, crackling crust, a golden, dense crumb, a fragrance of durum wheat unlike any other bread. It is made with stone-ground Senatore Cappelli wheat, and every bakery has its own version. Accompany it with a plate of orecchiette in ragù or with a thick Lucanian pulse soup.

Day 2 — The Sasso Caveoso, the Murgia, and the City's Depths

Morning: the Crypt of the Original Sin

The second day begins outside the city. The Cripta del Peccato Originale — the Crypt of the Original Sin — is about fifteen kilometres from Matera, in the Murgia countryside, and is reachable only by car or an organised shuttle. It takes its name from the Eden scene depicted in its apse, but it might just as well be called "the Sistine Chapel of cave painting": the eighth- and ninth-century frescoes that cover its entire inner surface have a freshness of colour and a stylistic quality that leave visitors speechless. The pomegranate red, the lapis lazuli blue, the lime white. Figures of Saints, an orant Madonna, Biblical scenes told by an anonymous monk in a cave lost in the Lucanian countryside.

Access is limited and by reservation: arrange this visit before you depart. Back in Matera, you will have time for a coffee with the sweet local taralli and to prepare for the descent into the Sasso Caveoso.

Afternoon: the Sasso Caveoso and the Murgia Park

The Sasso Caveoso is the lowest and oldest part of the Sassi, the one that descends most steeply toward the ravine and that preserves the wildest appearance. Start from the top, from Via Madonna delle Virtù, and descend slowly toward the bottom. The rock-hewn churches multiply: Santa Lucia alle Malve, with its eleventh-century frescoes that include some of the oldest depictions of the nursing Madonna in Christian art; Santa Barbara, smaller and more austere; San Pietro Caveoso, the only church in the Sasso with a baroque facade that seems almost an architectural misunderstanding, an urban ornament planted amid raw stone.

In the late afternoon take the staircase that leads to the Murgia Materana Park. The park is a karst plateau that extends on the other side of the ravine, and from there the view over the Sassi is the one seen in photographs — but in person it has a scale that no photograph renders. The ravine opens below you like a wound in the rock, and the Sassi climb both slopes like a city that never decided whether to descend to the bottom or stop halfway. The rock-hewn churches scattered through the park — some accessible on foot, some reachable only by four-wheel drive with a guide — add a further layer of stratification: here medieval monastic life found shelter and silence, and some of those silences seem still intact.

The main belvedere of the park closes the afternoon with the late afternoon light colouring the Sassi amber. It is the most photographed moment of the day, and it is photographed for good reason.

Evening: the Palombaro Lungo and Farewell to the City

Before dinner, descend beneath Piazza Veneto to visit the Palombaro Lungo. The cistern was carved from the tufa over centuries and progressively enlarged until it could hold over half a million litres of water. The visit — accompanied by a guide, with a hard hat — leads through a series of underground galleries and chambers where water still collects and where the sound of every step resonates amplified. It is a physical experience as much as a cultural one: the sense of depth, of patient construction in the dark, of a city that has always struggled to survive the drought of the South.

The last evening in Matera deserves a slow dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking the ravine. Order something simple: a plate of lagane e ceci, the wide pasta with chickpeas in thick broth, which is perhaps the oldest dish in Lucanian cuisine. Or the peperoni cruschi again, which never tire. Drink the Matera DOC, the red wine produced on the hills around the city from Primitivo and Merlot grapes, which has a robust structure and a spiced finish suited to the southern climate.

The last night walk is already a farewell. The illuminated Sassi at night have something unreal about them, like a city that exists outside of time. Matera does not resemble any other place in Italy, and perhaps in the world. Part of its fascination lies precisely in this: it is not beautiful according to the canons of Italian beauty — it has neither the grace of Florence nor the grandeur of Rome — but it has a presence, a mineral consistency, a geological weight that few cities in the world manage to transmit.

Practical Information

When to Go

The best months to visit Matera are April, May, September and October. Spring brings unusual greenery to the Murgia, which normally appears bare and golden, and temperatures are perfect for walking the Sassi without suffering the heat. Autumn has a lower, warmer light, ideal for photography, and fewer tourists. July and August are hot and crowded, especially on weekends when day-trippers arrive in waves from Bari. Matera has a moderate level of crowding compared to Italy's major destinations, but in high summer it can feel overcrowded during the central hours.

The winter months — December, January, February — have a particular appeal: the Sassi are almost deserted, the stone takes on darker shades in the humidity, and some misty mornings transform the view over the ravine into something almost dreamlike. Temperatures drop but rarely reach freezing.

Getting Around

Matera has no railway station on the main network: it is reached from Bari via the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane railway (about an hour and a half) or by car from the A14 motorway (Taranto exit) and the State Road 7. Once in the city, the Sassi are visited strictly on foot. There are no level routes: everything goes up or down, often on irregular staircases. Light hiking shoes are recommended, especially for the Murgia Park and the paths through the ravine.

The Cripta del Peccato Originale requires your own vehicle or an organised shuttle: this is the kind of visit that needs to be planned in advance.

Where to Eat and Sleep

For accommodation, consult dove dormire a Matera: sleeping in the Sassi is an experience worth the extra night in the budget. Many hotels and B&Bs are carved from ancient restored caves, with beds where donkeys once slept and windows looking out over the ravine. Prices are higher than the standard for southern Italy, but remain competitive compared to the major art cities.

For food, avoid the restaurants directly on the Belvedere — prices rise and quality falls. Instead, seek out the trattorias in the inner lanes of the Sasso Barisano or near Via Fiorentini: Matera bread, peperoni cruschi, orecchiette, lagane e ceci, Lucanian lamb, and the Matera DOC to toast a city that waited ten thousand years to finally be understood.

Beyond Two Days

If you have a third day or have already visited Matera and are looking for an extension, the Lucanian territory offers some of the least visited destinations in Italy. Metaponto, an hour's drive toward the Ionian coast, has the remains of a Greek colony with a museum and archaeological park that rarely exceeds a hundred visitors per day. Craco, the ghost town abandoned after a landslide in 1963, is one of the most evocative landscapes in southern Italy — used as a film set from James Bond to Mel Gibson — and is visited with local guides who recount its history with authentic intensity. Alberobello and the trulli are less than an hour to the north, but for those coming from Matera their cone-shaped geometry will seem almost cheerful, almost festive: a useful contrast for understanding how varied Basilicata and the bordering Puglia truly are.

Matera, however, needs no justification from nearby destinations. It has enough history, enough beauty and enough silence to fill far more than two days. The secret is simple: come back.

For a deeper dive into local cuisine, read our guide on where to eat in Matera.

For information on how to reach the city, check our guide on how to get to Matera.