Matera is an impressive city of ancient cave dwellings that were inhabited until the 1950's. Conditions in the caves were unsanitary and malaria was out of control, so the Italian government evicted all the inhabitants of the old city.
Many people will recognize the city as the filming location of
The Passion of the Christ.
We visited a museum exhibit in one of the old dwellings. The house was furnished as it would have been in the early 20th century. They