Excursion Matera & unesco sassi dirstrict with lunch tour at Bari

Matera is located in one of the political regions in the South of Italy called Basilicata. It is renowned for its landscape since the old town centre lies along the sides of a deep ravine split into two by a very small hill known as Civita, where the medieval town has been built. The result is that the whole city looks like a butterfly, whose "body" corresponds with the Civita and the two wings with the two winding "branches" of the ravine where the very old Sassi Districts have been built. You can easily translate Sassi as Stones into English, curiously referring to the origin of the settlements you are going to visit. Sassi were partly built and partly carved out of the soft ravine limestone: houses and grottoes, or churches and grottoes at the same time, where life in the past was really hard and the economy was based upon pasture, because agriculture was quite impossible in a stone context! Sassi were considered one of Southern Italy's examples of poverty, but they have been transformed into the most important cultural heritage nowadays, so you will easily understand the reason why such a strange settlement has been listed among the UNESCO sites.

Your will travel South West inland to reach the magnificent Matera, admiring the rich vegetation of Apulian countryside as well as its highest hills covered with wheat, the main ingredient to produce traditional yellowish-colored bread known as Pane di Altamura (Altamura's bread, after the name of a town close to Matera which is renowned for its DOP semolino bread).

Upon arrival in Matera, your tour guide will lead you through narrow lanes and staircases, to explore the time-less picturesque UNESCO Sassi Districts.

You will hear stories about "vicinati" (neighbourhoods in English), a real lifestyle with people living in humid one-room-house-caves arranged around little yards, labyrinths of winding streets, rock churches and cantinas, sharing everything they had with families living nearby.

Visit one of the typically furnished cave-houses and learn about how some of the locals lived in these caves as recently as 1960s!

Enjoy local typical cuisine in one of its most famous restaurants and taste local specialties along with local Aglianico wine. Shortly before leaving Matera climb up the small hill opposite the town and you will experience the breathtaking panoramic view of the deep ravine around where Mel Gibson shot the movie "The Passion of Christ"!