In 1933 the sassi (stone houses carved out of the cliffs dotting two Grand Canyon-like ravines) of Matera, said to be one of the oldest towns in the world, were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site. The caves date to the 8th century BC. Recent excavations have resulted in finding ruins of Byzantine Matera which encompass a rock church, a castle, and a cistern, adding to the innumerable cave churches, dwellings and cisterns which have already been discovered.  Matera was the setting for Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ.

Located three and a half hours east of Naples, we had planned an overnight trip to this mysterious, ancient site. As we travelled through the volcanic ridge past Naples and Sorrento and Salerno we made a rest stop at an autogrill. Our bottled waters and a huge slice of pizza with mushrooms and black olives came to 2 and ½ euros.

As we finally entered the town of Matera after the long 291-kilometer trip in the intense heat (in an un-air-conditioned car, by the way!), and drove up the winding, twisting narrow streets to our hotel, savoring the sight of the hundreds of caves lining the gorge, I was planning my future week-long return visit before we even got out of the car. I was mesmerized by the site of the caves tucked in along the gorge and up and down the steep slopes of the town itself. The new town hugs the cliffs of the old town and there were historic churches throughout the tiny city. Several sets of stone staircases led from the highest point in the city, where our hotel was located opposite the Duomo, down, down, down to the caves below.

Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to explore the stone staircases nearest our hotel or find transportation out to the opposite side of the gorge to the site of the Crucifixion scene in The Passion of the Christ. However, I did luck into a 4 p.m. tour that day – but it was conducted in Italian! No problem; I had studied my tour books and guidebooks and felt that I was familiar enough with the town and its history to enjoy a tour no matter the language.

At one point, our group was treated to a recording detailing the particulars of one of the cave homes we had ent