one destination that's been at the very top of her travel bucket list for a
while is matera and on this trip to Italy we were determined to make it
happen nicknamed the stone city matira has been quite literally dug out of the
rock and it's the site you won't soon forget
set on the slope of a rocky ravine the landscape is dominated by cave dwellings
zigzagging staircases and early churches that hold some incredible frescoes once
you set foot inside during our visit we stayed in the Sassi which is the ancient
town and in our opinion the best way to soak in the vibe of this place now in
this video we're going to take you on a tour of the city and show you some of
the things you can see do and eat when you visit matera well guys I'm kind of
speechless at the moment like I don't even know what to say I've been wanting
to visit matera for so long and now we're here and these are the views it's
like oh my gosh it's this place real yeah seriously it's one of those places
that just like you're speechless you're like yeah how could how can this exist
matera is well known for its Rupesh tree and churches carved into the rock and
covered in frescoes the most impressive of these churches charge admission
however there are some that you can visit free of charge we first stopped by
here Cerro pista de San Fierro Verrazano which is the largest Rock Church in the
city of matira however cameras weren't allowed inside however we wanted to show
you the fresco so we continued to convento de santa goskino
a church in convent dating back to the late 16th century after visiting the
church we followed an opening to the left of the altar that led us
underground where we were met with impressive frescoes and stone sculptures
and just the two of us to enjoy it off
all right guys this is amazing it is whisper quiet in here but Sam and I are
the only ones inside this cave like church or you can see frescoes from the
17th century and it is just so amazing and admission was free of charge though
you can leave a donation at the very end well yeah we're just blown away like
matera is blowing us away so a really cool thing about this town is that
apparently this is the third oldest continuously settled city in the world
they believe that people have been living here for over 9000 years and this
is third only to Aleppo and Jericho which is amazing and if you think this
place looks super biblical like I do you'll be pleased to know that this is
where they actually filmed the movie The Passion of the Christ
yet another amazing lookout point it seems we cannot go wrong here in Matera
user just dependent
from there we started walking uphill via series of staircases and winding streets
until we found ourselves in front of matera Cathedral which is built on the
ridge that forms the highest point of the city we had a quick peek inside to
admire their extravagant ceilings and then we had to stop and soak in the
views alright guys I don't even know why we're surprised anymore
another looking point another magnificent view Sam and I are literally
just walking around going wow wow I feel like locals are probably looking at us
like yeah we know we know this is our home but yeah this is the look of point
check it out you can see the whole city behind me
alright guys so we are super lost at the moment but in Matera that is a good
thing I was actually trying to leave Sam back to the apartment because it's
gotten so cold and it's freezing out and yeah instead we've ended up in front of
this incredible church carved into the rock can you see that back there like
these are I'm speechless like I have been blown away by this destination so
cold or not we're gonna check this out because I don't even know if all the old
to retrace my steps tomorrow so may as well see it now
okay so it would appear that this church carved into the rock that we're standing
behind is called yessuh the santa maria the either race and if you look just
across the ravine there's a whole bunch of like little caves carved into the
stone so again amazing and there's a trail there and I've noticed a little
bridge over the river so it looks like it is possible to visit yeah it is it is
windy right now it's er the rocky landscape we notice is called marginal
Park and it's an archaeological site with cliffs gorges and caves that were
settled in prehistoric times we did come back to walk this trail a few days later
however we found a sign saying that was closed for safety reasons
hopefully we'll reopen again soon
but now let's take a quick break to introduce you to Matt Aaron cuisine like
most of the establishments in Matera this restaurant was set in a cave with
whitewashed walls and we wasted no time placing our orders what else if not
pasta and wine we found a restaurant that specializes in matheran cuisine and
one thing I've learned here in Italy is that you never say you're having Italian
food to an Italian because the food really varies and across the country so
it's more about the region you know trying regional dishes so that's what
we're gonna be doing one of the most highly recommended restaurants in the
city is just like around the corner from our Airbnb Suites can Annette walk yeah
seriously yeah and it just opened a few minutes ago so we're hoping to be the
first customers there 12:30 let's go eat
so I ordered the pasta that's called orecchiette which I believe means ears
or little ears because of the shape if you have a look at the noodle here it
kind of has that form mix it around for us of it you want me to mix it but I
think it's already all mixed in but yeah this pasta comes with Kara doing chili
mushrooms and pork sausage so let's try to get a little bit of everything and
one bite what's up Dee it looks ratty it's absolutely worthless
I have to say still piping off my gosh
that is wonderful the pork sausage is so flavorful I really like that it's not
like hot spicy but there's like spices mixed in with the meat so it's just
really lovely it goes so well with the tomato sauce and I also really like the
mushrooms okay so it should be six your master oh my gosh it's an exciting
moment so this is very jelly with the cheese fondue oh yeah and also comes
with big chunks of mushrooms and also pistachio all around oh yeah and when he
ordered this the waitress was like oh yeah yeah yeah this looks really cheesy
it's got a really nice creamy cheesy sauce let's try that yeah what do you
think
if you have to choose between your cheese fondue and mine do you have a
favorite I think I like the cheese fondue yeah it's it's not as is
overpowering as I thought it would be though yeah but what I really like about
it is the crunchiness of the pistachios mmm and then the juiciness of the
mushrooms and just screaming it's just wow it makes for a wonderful place and
that of course was followed by dessert Audrey went for a creamy ricotta and
pear cheesecake while I went for the chocolate lava cake with warm gooey
chocolate and a dusting of icing sugar it was a great meal and we left beyond
satisfied
we spent a lot of time visiting cave churches but for a look at how locals
lived in these troglodyte dwellings we visited Casa garota the sassy district
is made up of a network of dwellings carved into the steep slopes of the
valley and many of these homes were inhabited up until the 1950s when the
government relocated the population to modern developments in the city
walking into the Casa grata we were able to see what the average home would have
looked like there's an audio recording that alternates between Italian and
English inside the house so visitors can get a
clear picture of what daily life was like for example the family's animals
would have been kept in the home and dogs would often share the bed with
their owners in order to generate heat and keep warm at night that's definitely
one tradition that Audrey would be more than happy to keep alive
so next step we're at Philo Beddoe Longo and we're gonna be doing a tour of
subterranean matera which is really cool I'm excited to be heading underground so
basically this tour is three euros per person it's gonna be twenty five minutes
long you have to go with the guide and yeah we're just waiting for a group
together and the English tears at the moment in the winter season or at 10:38
1230 but that could change so if you're in the area it maybe just come down look
at the schedule and pay for your ticket yeah we bought her tickets about 30
minutes in their best another interesting spot we visited was palem
Baro lingo a massive water cistern that sits directly under my Tara's main
square it dates back to 1846 and it supplied people with water until the
advent of modern plumbing routes the Sassi then the cistern was almost
completely forgotten and it wouldn't be rediscovered until 1991 today it's a
tourist attraction worth visiting our guide compared the cistern to an
underwater Cathedral and it's easy to see why
after visiting fellow modeling go we also found ourselves in front of the
ruins of Casa del Santo Spirito today the church sits beneath Piazza Vittorio
Veneto and though the place looks weathered you can still make out some of
the frescoes on the walls continuing our quest for matheran cuisine we ended up
at Ristorante Nadi another cave restaurant that we stumbled upon by
chance the plan see if we could go through a four-course meal and learn a
bit more about matheran cuisine and today we have decided to do a
four-course meal yeah however our stomachs aren't really trained for the
Italian Way of eating so we're going to share what a four-course meal between
the two of us
oh my god I probably the first course almost idiot so yeah I ate so much meat
and cheese and then all that pasta it's just been so good though like I just
can't but what I'm having good at all you feel like this I just stopped myself
last but not least our final recommendation for matera would be to
explore the city at night material looks magical between sunset and blue hour and
it was a pleasure to wander around with camera in hand and that's a wrap for
matera we hope you guys enjoyed discovering Italy's famed stone city and
we'll see you soon with more videos from Italy