You too could follow in James Bond’s footsteps – on the labyrinthine lanes of Matera, Italy
No Time To Die In UK cinemas from 30 September
Claire Webb - 24 September 2021
James Bond’s love affair with Italy has endured decades longer than most of his dalliances. During Daniel Craig’s tenure, the globetrotting MI6 agent has sailed down Venice’s Grand Canal in a yacht, zoomed around Lake Garda and Tuscany’s Apuan Alps, and convalesced on the shores of Lake Como. In No Time to Die – Craig’s final outing as 007 – his vintage Aston Martin takes on the narrow streets of Matera, a seductive cave city in southern Italy. (He also flits from Jamaica to London, Norway and the Faroe Islands.) An hour’s drive, or 80- minute train journey, from Puglia’s Bari Airport, Matera clings to the edge of a ravine in the often overlooked region of Basilicata – the instep of the Italian boot. Its warren of rock-hewn houses dates back 9,000 years and has recently become the country’s hippest destination. Yet only 70 years ago it was a squalid, malariaridden slum. It was known as la vergogna nazionale – “the disgrace of the nation” – and in the 1950s, the authorities forcibly removed its 16,000 inhabitants, leaving a ghost town.
Nowadays Matera’s cave-dwelling district – the Sassi, meaning “stones” – is a Unesco World Heritage site and has been thoroughly transformed. Abandoned homes have been turned into restaurants, galleries, B&Bs and boutique hotels where a sharp-suited spy would feel right at home, such as Locanda di San Martino, a former chapel and carpenter’s workshop where guests sleep in elegant grottoes and can take a dip in a subterranean pool. If your name’s not Bond, be sure to pack comfortable shoes because most of the Sassi’s cobbled lanes and steps are off limits to vehicles. (That may come as a relief after watching No Time to Die: Craig hurtles through the town’s central square on a motorbike during his high-speed chase.) Ordinarily, Piazza Vittorio Veneto is a lovely spot for people-watching and an espresso, especially in the morning, when locals stock up on groceries at the market, including crusty loaves of Matera’s beloved yellow-crumbed bread. Beneath it lies Palombaro Lungo, a 16th-century cistern complex with cathedralesque pillars that was forgotten about for centuries but can now be explored on an English-language tour.
A short stroll from the piazza, along a boulevard of peach-painted townhouses, is Palazzo Lanfranchi, a regal 17th-century seminary turned- art-museum. Its collection includes a haunting painting of Matera’s poverty-stricken cave dwellers, Lucania 61, by anti-fascist artist Carlo Levi. His 1945 memoir, Christ Stopped at Eboli, compared the disease-riddled Sassi to Dante’s Inferno and made Matera infamous throughout Italy. You can get a glimpse of what life would have been like back then at Casa Grotta, a typical home reconstructed with the help of the family who used to live there without water or electricity, and who kept chickens under the narrow bed.
Descending the staircases and alleys of Sassi Caveoso – a stone honeycomb burrowed into the hillside above a sheer limestone gorge – it’s easy to see why Mel Gibson chose the Sassi to stand in for ancient Jerusalem in his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which kick-started the city’s renaissance. At the heart of this neighbourhood, a rocky mound with a large cross on top looms over an immaculate street that’s now home to souvenir shops and boutique hotels, and a door in the cliff face leads to two medieval churches painted with expressive saints, Santa Maria de Idris and San Giovanni. In the Middle Ages, monks found refuge in Matera’s caves and built 150 churches, which were later used as homes, wine cellars and storerooms.
Nowadays, the best view in town is from the 13th-century Duomo that presides over the Sassi’s higgledypiggledy dwellings. The plain-looking cathedral is surprisingly lavish inside: look out for a Byzantine Madonna and 17th-century frescos. In the evening, locals amble arm in arm through Piazza Vittorio Veneto and natter over aperitivi. During the Bond shoot the crew were partial to a martini at Area 8, a quirky cocktail bar in the old town. Their take on 007’s tipple has a southern twist (Matera gin and bitter orange), but is still shaken, not stirred. Southern Italy’s hearty peasant cuisine tastes even more delicious after a day meandering up and down labyrinthine lanes. At cosy Trattoria del Caveoso, tuck into regional favourites such as dainty pasta smothered in crispy sun-dried peppers and creamy goat’s cheese, followed by sausages with turnip tops. Instead of pizza, locals favour focaccia: fat slices are topped with tomato sauce and plump olives, or slivers of potato and courgette. Wash dinner down with a bottle of Basilicata’s prized vino, Aglianico del Vulture, which is made with grapes grown in volcanic soils. After a glass or two of this crimson, earthy red, even 007 would surely loosen his tie and slow down a little.
James Bond’s love affair with Italy has endured decades longer than most of his dalliances. During Daniel Craig’s tenure, the globetrotting MI6 agent has sailed down Venice’s Grand Canal in a yacht, zoomed around Lake Garda and Tuscany’s Apuan Alps, and convalesced on the shores of Lake Como. In No Time to Die – Craig’s final outing as 007 – his vintage Aston Martin takes on the narrow streets of Matera, a seductive cave city in southern Italy. (He also flits from Jamaica to London, Norway and the Faroe Islands.) An hour’s drive, or 80- minute train journey, from Puglia’s Bari Airport, Matera clings to the edge of a ravine in the often overlooked region of Basilicata – the instep of the Italian boot. Its warren of rock-hewn houses dates back 9,000 years and has recently become the country’s hippest destination. Yet only 70 years ago it was a squalid, malariaridden slum. It was known as la vergogna nazionale – “the disgrace of the nation” – and in the 1950s, the authorities forcibly removed its 16,000 inhabitants, leaving a ghost town.
Nowadays Matera’s cave-dwelling district – the Sassi, meaning “stones” – is a Unesco World Heritage site and has been thoroughly transformed. Abandoned homes have been turned into restaurants, galleries, B&Bs and boutique hotels where a sharp-suited spy would feel right at home, such as Locanda di San Martino, a former chapel and carpenter’s workshop where guests sleep in elegant grottoes and can take a dip in a subterranean pool. If your name’s not Bond, be sure to pack comfortable shoes because most of the Sassi’s cobbled lanes and steps are off limits to vehicles. (That may come as a relief after watching No Time to Die: Craig hurtles through the town’s central square on a motorbike during his high-speed chase.) Ordinarily, Piazza Vittorio Veneto is a lovely spot for people-watching and an espresso, especially in the morning, when locals stock up on groceries at the market, including crusty loaves of Matera’s beloved yellow-crumbed bread. Beneath it lies Palombaro Lungo, a 16th-century cistern complex with cathedralesque pillars that was forgotten about for centuries but can now be explored on an English-language tour.
A short stroll from the piazza, along a boulevard of peach-painted townhouses, is Palazzo Lanfranchi, a regal 17th-century seminary turned- art-museum. Its collection includes a haunting painting of Matera’s poverty-stricken cave dwellers, Lucania 61, by anti-fascist artist Carlo Levi. His 1945 memoir, Christ Stopped at Eboli, compared the disease-riddled Sassi to Dante’s Inferno and made Matera infamous throughout Italy. You can get a glimpse of what life would have been like back then at Casa Grotta, a typical home reconstructed with the help of the family who used to live there without water or electricity, and who kept chickens under the narrow bed.
Descending the staircases and alleys of Sassi Caveoso – a stone honeycomb burrowed into the hillside above a sheer limestone gorge – it’s easy to see why Mel Gibson chose the Sassi to stand in for ancient Jerusalem in his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which kick-started the city’s renaissance. At the heart of this neighbourhood, a rocky mound with a large cross on top looms over an immaculate street that’s now home to souvenir shops and boutique hotels, and a door in the cliff face leads to two medieval churches painted with expressive saints, Santa Maria de Idris and San Giovanni. In the Middle Ages, monks found refuge in Matera’s caves and built 150 churches, which were later used as homes, wine cellars and storerooms.
Nowadays, the best view in town is from the 13th-century Duomo that presides over the Sassi’s higgledypiggledy dwellings. The plain-looking cathedral is surprisingly lavish inside: look out for a Byzantine Madonna and 17th-century frescos. In the evening, locals amble arm in arm through Piazza Vittorio Veneto and natter over aperitivi. During the Bond shoot the crew were partial to a martini at Area 8, a quirky cocktail bar in the old town. Their take on 007’s tipple has a southern twist (Matera gin and bitter orange), but is still shaken, not stirred. Southern Italy’s hearty peasant cuisine tastes even more delicious after a day meandering up and down labyrinthine lanes. At cosy Trattoria del Caveoso, tuck into regional favourites such as dainty pasta smothered in crispy sun-dried peppers and creamy goat’s cheese, followed by sausages with turnip tops. Instead of pizza, locals favour focaccia: fat slices are topped with tomato sauce and plump olives, or slivers of potato and courgette. Wash dinner down with a bottle of Basilicata’s prized vino, Aglianico del Vulture, which is made with grapes grown in volcanic soils. After a glass or two of this crimson, earthy red, even 007 would surely loosen his tie and slow down a little.
CLAIRE WEBB