Matera

Matera

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
7
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
8
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
7
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
6
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
6
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
9
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
75 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
101st/457
Top 30%
continent
Europe
country
Italy
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$90 (typically $20 - $160)
Time of year visited
October
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Ancient ruins Canyons Caves
All Tags
Bustling restaurants Christian site Cliffs Old town Temple complex UNESCO world heritage site
Wow Factor
Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary

Matera is a must if you’re in southern Italy. I’d heard plenty before coming — Bond’s No Time to Die, The Passion of the Christ, and all the talk about it being Europe’s oldest inhabited city — but Matera still surprised me as to just how cool and well done it all was.  Apartments, restaurants, communities built into the rock (it is known as “The City of Stones” in Italian), and just generally a feeling of wow wow at every turn.

 

We had just such a magical time exploring / getting lost / eating in the Sassos, as well as hiking over to the Sant’Agnese area. I can though see how it could be a very different, busy and tick box tourist exercise if you don’t do it right. So I’ve included some tips below for how to get the best out of Matera.

 

Matera

Table of Contents

Highlights of Matera

Matera 1. Throwing yourself into the main Sassi districts and getting lost amongst it all

1. Throwing yourself into the main Sassi districts and getting lost amongst it all

Matera 2. Dinner under the stars in the valley of Via Fiorentini. Oi Mari’s location in the middle of it all was magical

2. Dinner under the stars in the valley of Via Fiorentini. Oi Mari’s location in the middle of it all was magical

Matera 3. Waking up to sit on the balcony and enjoying the quietness of Matera in the early morning

3. Waking up to sit on the balcony and enjoying the quietness of Matera in the early morning

Matera 4. The hike over to Santa Maria dell’Arco and the caves, via the Ponte Tibetano della Gravina for the best views of Matera, and generally a nice walk

4. The hike over to Santa Maria dell’Arco and the caves, via the Ponte Tibetano della Gravina for the best views of Matera, and generally a nice walk

Matera 5. The views from the Sasso Caveoso right in the centre of the Sasso district

5. The views from the Sasso Caveoso right in the centre of the Sasso district

Matera 6. The surrounding gorges - beautiful hiking spots

6. The surrounding gorges - some really beautiful hiking spots

Matera 7. The Bond corner - the spot James smashed the Aston Martin around

7. The Bond corner - the spot James smashed the Aston Martin around

Matera 8. The views of Matera from the Santa Maria dell’Arco area

8. The views of Matera from the Santa Maria dell’Arco area

Matera 9. The intricacy of the small lanes around the Sassos

9. The intricacy of the small lanes around the Sassos

Matera 10. The beautiful medieval cave churches dotted all through the far side of the gorge. In this case the Chiesa Rupestre di Madonna delle Tre Porte

10. The beautiful medieval cave churches dotted all through the far side of the gorge. In this case the Chiesa Rupestre di Madonna delle Tre Porte

9 Tips to help get the best from Matera

1. Stay overnight – the evenings were magical, and the early mornings so quiet compared to the day time, to the extent that these times were by far our highlights of the time there.  Allow yourself to take advantage by staying overnight.

 

2. Benefits of going in October (or similar shoulder season time). Seeing it midday makes me think that the height of summer and busy-ness would be horrible.  Emphasises even more than need to do it late night or early in the morning, but also to pick the right time of year.  October was perfect – bright blue skies and warm in the day, bloody cold and clear starry skies at night.

 

3. Get lost, don’t go on a tour – I saw a series of large guided tours and they looked soul-destroying.  Yes, you’ll pick up a bit more history facts, but you’ll miss that wonderful feeling of just getting a bit lost in it all and finding unexpected cool things at every turn.  My advice is charge into it with out a map, and go back into it later with a map / guide if you want to hoover up all the info.

 

4. Eat down in the valley of Via Fiorentini in the evening – Oi Mari’s location in the middle of it all was magical.

 

5. The views are good everywhere in the old stone town area. Don’t worry about finding the right viewpoint – again, just head off into it all.

 

6. But … definitely hike to Santa Maria dell’Arco for the best canyon views of Matera. You can hike directly from the main road of Madonna delle Virtù, down the slope, over the bridge Ponte Tibetano della Gravina and up to the plateau with the 7000 year old caves. It’s about a 2.8km / 1.75miles round trip, with about 175m total incline. Really nice walk and gives a very different set of views and vibes to central Matera.

 

7. Where to stay – we stayed in each of the two Sassi districts (the old stone areas either side of the ancient Civita centre). Fab location and would recommend, but I actually think staying 15mins or so away would be fine. The walks in and out are nice and I can imagine in summer many of the best spots are booked up / daft expensive anyway.  That being said, there was something cool about waking up in the Sassi and having the views from the balcony.

 

8. Perfect 18 hours: arrive late afternoon → blue-hour wander of Sasso Barisano/Sasso Caveoso → dinner on Via Fiorentini → sunrise coffee on a balcony → hike across Ponte Tibetano della Gravina to Santa Maria dell’Arco → back for lunch.

 

9. Matera is often combined with a visit to nearby Puglia.  For a week-long itinerary, including the white-washed towns of the Valle d’Itria and the coastline magic of Trieste, see the A week in Puglia in early October entry.  A wow experience.

Little bit of Matera History

  • Matera is quite special – it has evidence of human habitation going back 9,000 years, which makes it one of the oldest continuous inhabited places in the world – oldest in Europe and top 5 in the world.  For context, that is before any of the world’s first civilisations like the Sumerians or Egyptians really formed.
  • But when people call Matera “one of the oldest cities in the world,” it’s not quite right. Continuously inhabited, yes, but it’s a stretch to call the troglodytes living it caves the same as the cities like Cádiz, Jericho, or Byblos.
  • In the 1950s, the Italian government called Matera “the shame of Italy” due to its extreme poverty — entire families and animals shared single cave rooms.  After a mass evacuation and decades of abandonment, the city was reborn. In 1993, Matera was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its “extraordinary continuity of human life”.

  • By 2019, it had become European Capital of Culture, celebrated for turning a forgotten cave city into a cultural beacon

Experiences Nearby

Wow Factor Score Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100. LowHigh
  • Elite, unmissable
  • World-class, downsides
  • Meets the Wow Factor
  • Worth it
  • Meh
  • Gash

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences - from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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