Matera, the city of caves. Not located in Puglia but just outside it in the province of Basilicata. The Puglia administration would very much like it to be part of their region. But that is a political matter.Matera is famous for its so-called Sassi or cave houses. Since 1993 it is named an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and rightly so. The story goes that the rocks on the site where Matera now stands have served as shelters for monks who fled the Byzantine Empire since the eighth century. They started carving cave dwellings into the lime stone cliffs. Some parts …