Putto sketch by Maggie Cowling

Margaret Cowling Arts

I Sassi, Matera and Alberobello – 6 nights

Matera was once the majestic capital of Basilicata, the region east of Naples. It reigns over the famous Sassi dwellings at the edge of a yawning ravine.

Like a Dantesque inferno, I Sassi (the stones) wind down to the Gravina River, the descending path forming the roof of the dwellings beneath, each carved into the "tufa" (a friable limestone) and faced with hewn blocks.

Sasso Barisano, Matera, perched on the edge of the ravine.

Cave, Sassi

Although the Sassi have existed since Paleolithic times, it was only in the 1950s, with the publication of Carlo Levi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli, that the Sassi and the plight of their inhabitants were brought to international attention.

Now declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Sassi are being preserved.


Our hotel is carved high in the valley with spectacular views up to the medieval Cathedral of Matera and down into the dazzling play of light and shadow of the Sassi.

We venture by coach to another World Heritage site: the surreal Trulli homes with whitewashed walls and conical stone roofs.


We capture a sense of the harshness of a landscape still dotted with farmlets surrounded by drystone walling