With its "Sassi" limestone cave dwellings dug into the hillside and cascading in gravity-defying fashion down a steep slope towards the Gravina river, Matera is one of the Italian cities that time forgot.

Bypassed by development in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and described by Carlo Levi as one of the most backward places in Italy in his famous 1945 book "Christ Stopped at Eboli", Matera remained so primitive until recent decades that it made the perfect stand-in for ancient Jerusalem.

Matera is really two places in one — a thriving, modern city with restaurants, hotels, shops, museums, churches and the usual amenities tucked higher up the plateau from the ancient Sassi caves, which have been inhabited since prehistoric times — by some accounts for 9,000 years.

UNESCO has named it a European cultural capital for 2019, which should bring many more visitors to one of Italy's poorest areas.