The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has added three villages in Italy to the 2023 list of Best Tourism Villages.
03.10.2023 - 10:35 / wanderlust.co.uk
“Basilicata has always been poor – even the mafia didn’t bother us,” my guide, Nicola, smiled. It’s a Iine I heard a lot in this improbable region. Paradoxically, it has enough oil to make a Texan envious – yet for decades it was known only as ‘Italy’s shame’.
In recent years, Matera claimed a European Capital of Culture title, famous for its once-abandoned caves, and the many other reasons it's become a must-see destination while in Basilicata, or even on a longer tour of Italy.
In the 1940s, the writer Carlo Levi, exiled to southern Italy by the fascists, wrote of a city of caves called Matera. He told of its ‘tragic beauty’, and of its people who lived in ‘dark holes’ known assassi, hand dug from the rock since prehistory.
Levi’s words later caused a stink in post-war Italy, and in the 1950s Matera’s sassi were cleared and its residents relocated. After lying derelict for decades, it was only in the 1990s – after a park was created to protect the 150 rock-cut churches pocking its hills, and once UNESCO had earmarked the city for World Heritage status – that redemption began in earnest. Caves became hotels, homes and restaurants, and shame gradually turned to pride.
Today, about 1,500 people live in the cave districts, though some 30% of the sassi still remain empty, Nicola revealed as we tramped the cobbles of the Sasso Barisano (cave district). When he was in his teens, he and his friends hung out in these caves; one we visited is now a theatre built into the rock.
After Mel Gibson’s filmThe Passion of the Christwas shot here in 2004, Italy woke up to Matera: locals throng its piazzas, and it was named European Capital of Culture for 2019. Yet beyond the sassi, the region’s wonders remain little known.
Basilicata is a wild land of lonely ghost towns, wineries in ancient volcanoes and colourful history – Greek ruins and Albanian villages built by 15th-century refugees stud hills and valleys.
Two days later, high in Pollino National Park, I saw its wild side for myself. My guide pointed at a solitary giant Bosnian pine, ancient and rare, surrounded by the skeletal remains of dead trees – one last tragic beauty in a region of slow wonders.
‘Italy’s shame’ is now its pride and joy. Locals fill Matera on weekends and saint’s days. Bag a tour: many off-radar sassi require a key.
Archaeologist and guide Nicola Taddonio, who runs Sassi Tour, grew up here. His half-day city walk delves into hidden alleys, trawling a history thronged with invaders (Greek, Roman, Byzantine). Visit the private St George sassito see how such caves were repurposed for each era – first as a church, then for oil production, then later for wine.
The
The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has added three villages in Italy to the 2023 list of Best Tourism Villages.
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It’s too modern. It’s too fashion-focused. It’s fast-paced, devoid of la dolce vita, it doesn’t feel Italian. Milan has had the same old criticisms levelled at it for decades, and for decades Italy’s business capital has shrugged them off. Because anyone who really knows the city knows it’s not like that at all. The difference between Milan and the rest of the country is that where most Italian cities put their heritage on blousy display, Milan stands back, willing you to discover hers gradually.
I set clear intentions for my mini holiday. As a self-employed entrepreneur living on the chaotically beautiful island of Sicily and the mother of an ‘energetic’ toddler, I desperately needed ‘me time’.
The Netherlands’ second city is a winner for those weary of its more famous (and oversubscribed) rival. Sure, there’s water – it’s Europe’s largest port, after all – with rivers, canals and harbours at every turn. But this sprawling metropolis doesn’t yield its pleasures as easily as Amsterdam, largely because second world war bombing destroyed most of the historic centre. Its pioneering postwar architecture is, however, what makes “Manhattan on the Maas” so fascinating. Treasures include the 1970s Cube Houses designed by Piet Blom, the landmark cable-stayed Erasmus Bridge, the 1960 retro-futuristic Euromast and eclectic buildings in the leafily landscaped Museumpark. Alongside design museum Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Kunsthal gallery, a must-visit is The Depot, an ambitious €94m bowl-shaped “storage facility” for the city’s art collection, its rooftop cafe boasting panoramic views. Equally compelling is Delfshaven, which escaped bombing, and is now home to waterside pubs, a microbrewery and tucked-away restaurants.
Take a little staircase down from an old tollbooth on one of Leiden’s 88 bridges and hop on to one of the electric tour boats. I loved drifting along the canals of this stunning old Dutch city past townhouses as fine as any in Amsterdam, the botanical gardens, windmills, university buildings and the 17th-century observatory. Except in summer, ducks, swans and local wild swimmers outnumber tourists. You can scout out the best waterside terrace cafes for lunch, daydream about living on one of the many well-kept houseboats with their flower-filled decks, and plan excursions by water further afield; the city canals link up along the waterways for countryside day cruises to Delft, Haarlem or the coast.Maartje
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