Five years ago I spent a three days in the Basilicata town called of Matera, called “la città sotterranea” ("the underground city"), a slightly eerie place where many of hillside cave dwellings dating ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning writer/podcaster, I've been to 100+ countries. Matera, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, has been ...

European Capital of Culture status has shone a spotlight on Italy's oldest city, whose previous claims to fame were an image as a cinematic "New Jerusalem" but also its "shameful" slums. Matera, ...

Anyone from Jesus to James Bond has been seen in the Unesco heritage site now open for business after lockdown As audiences have come to expect with the James Bond franchise, the locations are almost ...

Roads and venues remain unbuilt as the southern Italian city struggles to be the 2019 capital of culture When the southern Italian city of Matera found out it had been selected as the 2019 European ...

The stone walls of Matera do not whisper history—they press it into the air. The scent of damp limestone still clings to cave ceilings carved thousands of years ago, while narrow passages funnel light ...

The third-oldest city in the world, Matera is in the limelight in 2019 but it has an enduring, timeless appeal that few travellers will be able to resist. Here's what The Local's editor Clare Speak ...