Matera is one of the longest inhabited cities in the world— people have been living there since the Neolithic period. It’s a Unesco World Heritage site that has inspired writers and movie makers and it will also officially become the new European Capital of Culture in 2019.

Matera is the second biggest city in the region of Basilicata, in the south of Italy. It was the first southern Italian city to be added to the list of Unesco World Heritage sites, in 1993, thanks to its Sassi, which still remain the city’s most unique feature. The Sassi (literally translating to “rocks” in English) are cave dwellings dug into the gorge known as the Gravina di Matera. They form the old town of Matera and have been inhabited since the 8th millennium before the Common Era.