Matera is located in a remote corner of Southern Italy in the small region of Basilicata. It’s not the easiest place to reach which is why it has managed to remain relatively unknown and preserved, especially to foreign tourists. Buildings climb up and down the hillside, houses piled on top of each other, the roofs of some acting as streets for those above. They were carved out of the rock and the original caves extended with facades that look like normal homes. Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in history dating back to the Palaeolithic period. On the other side of the ravine you can see the simple forms of the Neolithic caves where people lived 7000 years ago. A dense structure of narrow streets and alleyways fill up with the lights of the evening, giving off the impression that one is strolling through a Nativity scene made of papier-mâché. This is Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019, where the Rupestrian churches and uber-famous Sassi, the very peculiar settlements carved into the rock, were included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. A walk through Matera’s historic center, will carry visitors back into a long forgotten past. The zone was already inhabited during the Paleolithic Era, when the first settlements were established in these calcarenite grottoes. The terrain around Matera, it is so fascinating that earns the nickname “The Second Bethlehem”, and has impressed writers, artists and directors for centuries; you may recall, that Mel Gibson chose to film The Passion of the Christ in Matera.