Matera in one day
A one-day Matera plan: a guided Sassi walk in the morning, lunch, a rock church or museum, sunset at a viewpoint, how many days to stay and arriving from Bari.
One full day is enough to see the Sassi di Matera properly. Take a two-hour guided walk in the morning, have a long lunch, go inside one or two rock churches or a museum in the afternoon, and finish at a viewpoint for sunset. Stay a second day if you want to hike the Murgia across the gorge or see the Sassi in the evening and early morning without rushing.
If the stairs are the problem, swap the morning walk for the Sassi of Matera: Eco-Bus Open Top Tour: 1.5 hours with commentary in Italian and English, a stop in Sasso Caveoso with entry to a cave house, $22, rated 4.6 from 1,267 GetYourGuide reviews.
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A one-day plan for the Sassi
Morning: a guided walk. Start with a two-hour walking tour, because it gives you the layout of both districts and usually one cave house and one rock church. The most-reviewed option here is the Matera: Sassi Tour with Cave House and Rupestrian Church at $33, 4.7 from 7,953 reviews, which enters a cave house museum and the Sant’Antonio Abate church. Starting times vary by operator; one Passi nei Sassi walk, for example, runs at 10:30 and 15:00. From June to September take the earliest slot you can, because the stone lanes get hot by midday. July and August average highs of about 30-31°C (1961-1990 means). Our guide to choosing a tour compares every format.
Lunch. Matera’s food is peasant cooking, a mix of Basilicata and Apulia. Look for pane di Matera, the protected sourdough loaf made with durum-wheat semolina; crapiata, a soup of legumes and wheat; cialledda, a dish of stale bread served hot in winter and cold in summer; and a glass of Matera DOC.
Afternoon: one or two interiors your tour skipped. If your walk took you to Sant’Antonio Abate, add Santa Lucia alle Malve or San Pietro Barisano (€4.50 each, timed tickets), or the Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario (€8). For something underground, the Palombaro Lungo cistern under Piazza Vittorio Veneto takes about 15 minutes, and the San Giorgio al Paradiso complex in Sasso Barisano, sold as the Underground Tour of the Sassi with Audio Guide for $7, takes 15-20 minutes. MUSMA, the contemporary sculpture museum in Sasso Caveoso, costs €10. The tickets and prices guide has every price and booking rule.
Late afternoon: climb to the Civita for the Cathedral (the route with its museum costs €4; closed to tourist visits 10:00-12:30 on Sundays), then walk to the free terraces at Piazzetta Pascoli and the Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio on Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
Sunset: stay on the town side for free, or cross the gorge to the Belvedere di Murgia Timone, which is ticketed and needs a car or a transfer. The $47 Murgia Timone Belvedere Sunset Guided Tour & Transfer includes both. Our sunset tour page has the evening options.
How many days to spend in Matera
One day covers the Sassi themselves: a guided walk, two or three interiors and a sunset. The Bari day trips compared on this site give you about four hours in town, which is enough for the walk and lunch but rarely the sunset.
Two days, with a night in between, lets you add the things that take time. The park’s Sentiero 406 runs about 6 km from Porta Pistola in the Sassi across a suspension bridge to Murgia Timone, roughly two hours on foot, with a paid ticket and hiking shoes required. The Cripta del Peccato Originale, a frescoed cave church, is about 15 minutes outside Matera by car and needs a reservation. A night in town also gives you the Sassi in the evening and first thing in the morning. Our where to stay page covers the areas.
A third day suits you if you want to add Alberobello and its trulli, which our Matera and Alberobello page covers as a day tour.
The same day with fewer stairs
The Sassi are a staircase. The Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario describes constant ups and downs across all the districts, the paving is uneven stone, and the streets up to the Civita can only be walked. Most walking tours list themselves as not suitable for people with mobility impairments. Plan the day around that if knees, heat or small children are a concern.
The eco-bus is the cheapest way to see the lower Sassi with little walking. Its tour leader gives commentary in Italian and English as the bus drives along Via Madonna delle Virtù, with the Murgia and the gorge on the far side. It stops for 40 minutes in Piazza San Pietro Caveoso, including a visit to a furnished cave house and about 25 minutes of free time, then drives back. It is not hop-on hop-off: there is only the one stop. Non-folding wheelchairs are not allowed.
Read the lower-rated reviews before you book. Some riders found the guide hard to hear over the bus, and one found that commentary in two languages left long gaps between the English parts. Others felt the free stop ran long in summer heat. One reviewer with a bad knee pointed out that the bus can use only one road through the Sassi, so most corners are still reachable only on foot.
Two alternatives cover more ground. The Open Top Bus Tour with Entrance to Casa Grotta also costs $22, runs about 105 minutes and includes the Casa Grotta Narrante, with an audio guide on your own phone. The Panoramic Tuk-Tuk Tour takes your group alone for 45 minutes for $39 per person. Our open-top bus page and tuk-tuk page compare them.
On a low-stair day, ask each venue about steps before you go: most cave houses and rock churches are reached by stairs.
Sunset times through the year
Plan the viewpoint around sunset, which moves by four hours across the year. These are approximate times for Matera on the 21st of each month, in local time.
| Month | Sunset |
|---|---|
| January | 16:56 |
| February | 17:34 |
| March | 18:06 |
| April | 19:38 |
| May | 20:08 |
| June | 20:28 |
| July | 20:20 |
| August | 19:45 |
| September | 18:55 |
| October | 18:06 |
| November | 16:33 |
| December | 16:29 |
From November to February, sunset falls between about 16:30 and 17:30, so plan the viewpoint for late afternoon and check closing times for your date, since some sites close earlier in winter. In June and July you have light until about 20:30, which leaves time for a rest in the hottest hours. For the weather month by month, see our best time to visit Matera guide.
Should you go to Matera?
Yes, if you can manage stairs. UNESCO listed the Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches in 1993, describing them as “the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region”. The two districts were inhabited until the 1950s, when a 1952 law began moving well over ten thousand residents to new neighborhoods. People began moving back from the 1980s, and Matera was European Capital of Culture in 2019. You come for cave districts on the edge of the Gravina gorge, about 150 rock-cut churches in the city and its territory, and furnished cave houses that show how families lived there.
It suits you less if you cannot handle steps or heat. Even the vehicle tours leave much of the Sassi out of reach, and from June to September the middle of the day on bare stone is hard going.
Is Matera safe?
The risks to plan for in the Sassi are physical. The lanes are steep, stepped and uneven, so wear closed shoes with good grip; one tour operator warns that the old cobblestones can be slippery in the evening. Carry water and sun protection in summer. On the Murgia trails, hiking shoes are required on Sentiero 406, stay on the marked paths, and expect guided hikes to be called off in rain.
Arriving from Bari on the day
Matera is about 68 km from Bari, roughly an hour by car or by FlixBus. The train is the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane narrow-gauge line to Matera Centrale (there is no Trenitalia station) and takes roughly 1 hour 20 minutes to 2 hours depending on the service. FAL trains do not run on Sundays and holidays, when buses replace them. If you drive, park outside the Sassi: the traffic-limited zone at the Sassi gates is active from 10:00 to 20:30 from 16 September to 30 June, and to midnight from 1 July to 15 September. Our Bari to Matera guide has the timetables, fares and parking.
A day tour solves the transport. The From Bari: Excursion to Matera by Bus gives you about four hours in Matera and leaves at 3:00 pm; it costs $37 for the bus only with no guide, or $84 with guides. Our Matera tour from Bari page compares it with the guided day trips.
Before you go
- Book the morning walk ahead and pick the English slot.
- Reserve timed tickets for the rock churches you want.
- Wear closed shoes with grip, and carry water from June to September.
- Check sunset for your date and plan the viewpoint around it.
- On a Sunday, visit the Cathedral outside 10:00-12:30, and check the train timetable if you are coming from Bari.
To book the eco-bus for your date, use the date checker near the top of this page.
Book Your Walk Through the Sassi
Two hours with a licensed guide, a cave house and a rock-cut church, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before the tour.
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