Italian eeriness

If your idea of an Italian holiday involves a Tuscan villa flanked by cypresses and olive trees, this may be of no interest to you. But obscurity junkies, read on east of Naples, in the region of Basilicata, lies the ghost town of Matera, notable for its curious honeycomb of troglodytic hovel-caves on a hill. 

Inhabited up to the 1950s, these prehistoric dwellings carved out of soft volcanic rock were finally vacated when author Carlo Levi painted a grim picture of the living conditions in Christ Stopped at Eboli. Decades later, some of these grottoes have been put to new use as part of the Alberghi Diffusi, or dispersed hotels movement, which attempts to revive the many abandoned villages and towns in this part of Italy.

In neighbouring Craco, the population dwindled over centuries, for reasons ranging from plagues and civil strife to earthquakes and landslides. Perched on a cliff overlooking the Canone river valley, there&rsquos evidence to suggest that it existed in pre-Roman times. Tourists now arrive to see the pageant of crumbling nobiliary buildings, the palazzos, the many churches and chapels, including the impressive convent of San Pietro of the Observant Friars Minor, and the Norman Castle of the twelfth century on the summit.

Location Buses and trains connect Matera to Rome (400km) in the north and Puglia&rsquos capital Bari (50km) in the south (marozzivt.it and fal-srl.it). Craco is adjacent to the town of Matera.

Where to stay Check alberghidiffusi.it/en to spend nights in the sassi (stone) hills of Matera.