Cammino Materano: The Sassi and the Ravines of Basilicata on Foot

Before Matera became European Capital of Culture 2019, the Sassi were a place of shame — the 'Southern question,' as Togliatti called it. Today they are a UNESCO site welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. But the land that surrounds them — the deep ravines carved into the tuff, the clay badlands of the Murgia, the forests of Montepiano — remains almost untouched. The Cammino Materano crosses this landscape for 260 kilometres, starting from Bari and arriving in Matera in about twelve days.

The ravines and the rock churches

The most extraordinary stretch is the one through the Murgia Materana Park: a limestone plateau sliced by canyons tens of metres deep, on whose vertical walls hundreds of rock-hewn churches were frescoed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. The Crypt of Original Sin, near Pietragalla, preserves early-medieval frescoes of extraordinary chromatic vividness. The Madonna delle Tre Porte, near Gravina in Puglia, is hidden in a cave accessible only to those who know where to look. Shepherds drove their flocks along these same trails before motorways changed everything.

Stages and hospitality

The Cammino Materano is well organised thanks to the association of the same name: partner lodgings along the route offer beds for 20–30 euros in pilgrim hostels or agriturismos. The cuisine of Basilicata surprises: onion calzone in Gravina, orecchiette with pork ragù in the villages of the Alta Murgia, Matera DOP bread — a durum-wheat loaf with a thick crust and yellow crumb — fresh in every town. The credential can be picked up in Bari or downloaded from the official website.

When to set out

March, April and May are the golden months: almond trees in bloom, cool temperatures, the morning light painting the tuff of the Sassi pink at dawn. September and October are equally beautiful, with the Aglianico grape harvest in full swing. Summer should be avoided for the extreme heat and the dry Gargano wind. Crowds on the trail are still minimal compared with northern routes: you often walk for hours without meeting another pilgrim, which, in this landscape of stone and southern silence, is exactly what you are looking for.