Matera, famous for its "Sassi," is a city in the region of Basilicata located essentially where the heel of the "boot" of Italy starts. "Sassi" means rocks, but in this case we're not talking about big boulders like those of Stonehenge. Here, the Sassi—the first site in southern Italy to be taken under UNESCO's protective wing, in 1993—are two ancient districts that constitute the town's historic center.

They were carved into the calcareous rock referred to locally as tufo. Houses, alleys, wells: there are layers of history right before your eyes in the Sassi, which developed around what is called the Civita, the oldest inhabited part of Matera. Visiting the Sassi means discovering an intricate urban system clinging to the slopes overlooking the Gravina Valley, making Matera a spectacular landscape. This is the place Mel Gibson chose to film The Passion.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/