Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and you feel it in your legs: stairs, alleys, houses dug into the stone, one on top of the other.
Stay until sunset. As the sky turns blue, the Sassi switch on one window at a time, and the whole valley looks like a nativity scene someone forgot to put away.
“Wait for the lights. It’s worth every step.”
Then go down, not up. The lower lanes are where the city is quietest, and where you’ll understand why people lived here for nine thousand years.
