There are few places in Italy which can be genuinely labelled ‘unique’; Venice is one and the city of Matera, located in a remote corner of the little-visited region of Basilicata is another. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, this astonishing place has been inhabited since before recorded history, and for millennia, its people carved cave churches into the tufa rock along with dwellings known as Sassi (or stones) where they lived with their animals in the crudest conditions. Wandering round the narrow streets of the largely-restored medieval town today – a tangle of ancient, pale honey-hued buildings, tiny piazzas and winding staircases peppered with  galleries, cool shops, restaurants and hotels – it’s hard to believe that it was one of western Europe’s most deprived towns with many of the Sassi lacking electricity, running water or basic sanitation until relatively recently. But in 1952, the  Italian government forced some 20,000 residents to evacuate, relocating them to modern apartment blocks in the suburbs and leaving many traumatised.

Matera became more widely known, at least to cinema audiences, when it provided the dramatic backdrop for films such as Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1961) and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ (2004). Then, after a six-month stint as European Capital of Culture in 2019 and being chosen as the location in 2o21 for No Time to Die starring Daniel Craig as James Bond and everyone seemed to be talking about Matera.   

Nowadays in high season, day-trippers arrive in droves to ogle the reconstructed cave dwellings and the 12^th and 13^th century chiese rupestri dug out of the rock,  many of them decorated with extraordinary frescoes. But come evening, after the last tour bus has departed, the heats seeps from the day, dusk falls and the town lights up like a Christmas tree; it is an utterly beguiling place, both dazzling and mysterious.  

Everybody should sleep in a cave room at least once in their lives, and a slew of recent hotel openings have made this possible, albeit with 21^st century high-end bells and whistles. The most luxurious underground suites are to be found at five-star Vetera, inaugurated in May 2025 and the latest opening from the Sorrento-based Bellevue Group.   

Hospitality has been flowing through the veins of the Russo-Attanasio family for five generations. The five-star clifftop Bellevue Syrene in Sorrento, acquired by visionary hotelier Giovanni Russo in 1993, celebrated 205 years of business in 2025, and the group also has properties on the Sorrentine peninsula, in Milan and now, with the May 2025 opening of the five-star Relais & Chateaux, in Matera.   

So why Matera? 

“Our interest in Matera stems from a very natural reflection on the Bellevue Group’s journey” explains Adda Attanasio who, with her twin sister Amelia and mother Elsa Russo, runs the hotels. “We have always been drawn to places that do not need to be constructed, but rather tell their own story. The Bellevue Syrene has existed for over two centuries, striking a balance between history, landscape and hospitality. With Vetera, we have rediscovered this same authenticity in a completely different, yet equally powerful, context.”

Matera is a city that you don’t just visit; it has to be experienced from within. It has extraordinary depth, on both a historical and human and human level, and a relationship between man and nature that stretches back millennia which  must be respected. Thus the Vetera project was not conceived to ‘fit into’ the Sassi, but rather to dialogue and engage with them, respecting and preserving their identity and communicating this to guests in the most heartfelt and authentic way. 

“For us, above all this means creating a welcome experience that resonates with this place – its buildings,  rhythms and atmosphere – and which makes every guest feel part of its story.” As CEO Mario Attanasio (the twins’ father) points out “Every detail, from the room fragrance to the food, must carry a sense of place.” 

“We were born into hospitality”, Brand Manager Amelia said in a recent interview. “My grandmother owned hotels, my grandfather owned hotels – they teamed up, bought more, transformed, sold.” 

It was a local dentist who kick-started the project, buying up neighbouring buildings over several years with dreams of one day opening a hotel. It came to the attention of the Russo-Attanasio family and plans were laid for what was to become a meticulous, eight-year restoration project. Today, the 23-room Vetera is the one of the very few five-star ‘alberghi diffusi’ in the city,  its sprawling buildings taking in noble 18th-century palazzi, millennial caves and even a cloister set in Matera’s ancient Rione Vetera. Guests can choose to sleep above or below ground; the best of the five Hypogeum Suites, their pale, sinuous  walls and ceilings carved out of the porous rock face, have plunge pools on a lower level, but are not for the claustrophobic.  Above ground, rooms in the elegant palazzo have tall windows, soaring vaulted ceilings, stone balconies and sweeping views over the town. While 21^st century comforts abound, furnishings are spare and decorative elements minimal allowing the extraordinary buildings to speak for themselves. This quasi-monastic approach not only fits the mystical aura of the place but also enhances the Attanasio’s ever-evolving collection of contemporary art works which pepper the cool hallways. 

Food plays an important part in life at Vetera which is fast becoming a reference point on the city’s developing culinary scene. Helmed by Neapolitan chef Edoardo Estatico, the luminous, hypogeal Artema is not simply a hotel restaurant, but rather a meeting place for both culture and gastronomy dedicated to trumpeting the culinary traditions and seasonal ingredients of Lucania with a contemporary and global spin. Estatico’s menus are a fusion of both his native and adoptive regions showcasing the unique produce of each terroir. “Each dish represents me” he says; “Every flavour is a profound dialogue between land and sea, memory and vision, roots and horizons.” The tasting menus – ‘Travelling with Edoardo’ and the vegetarian ‘Basilicata in Green’ – offer intriguing dishes such as Cod in Transit and Pulcinella’s Secret and Mask. But you can also order a simple bowl of pitch-perfect orecchiette tossed with bitter rape greens and grated pecorino or a platter of milky-white mozzarella and the sweetest cherry tomatoes scattered with pungent oregano. The wine cellar digs deep into the Sassi and offers an atmospheric venue for tastings.