File 014 · Basilicata, Italy

Sassi di Matera

Once called the shame of Italy. Then Bond arrived and drove a DB5 through it.

Why go

Cave homes inhabited for 9,000 years, called the 'shame of Italy' and emptied by law in 1952. Now UNESCO-listed and reborn.

The place

9,000 years in the rock

People have lived in the caves of the Sassi since prehistory, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth.

The shame of Italy

Carlo Levi's book Christ Stopped at Eboli (1945) exposed the poverty here: families sharing caves with animals and disease. From 1952 a special law moved the residents out, and the Sassi stood almost empty.

The comeback

Film-makers saw Jerusalem in it: Pasolini in 1964, Mel Gibson in 2004. UNESCO listed the Sassi in 1993, and in 2019 Matera was European Capital of Culture.

The shoot: No Time to Die (2021)

The opening chase through the Sassi.

The opening

No Time to Die (2021) opens with Bond and Madeleine on holiday in Matera before everything goes wrong. The DB5 comes down Via D'Addozio, and the chase runs through Piazza San Pietro Caveoso and the lanes below.

September 2019

The main crew shot here for about a week in September 2019. More than 100 locals walked as extras in a candlelit procession.

The bridge

The bridge jump wasn't in Matera at all. It was filmed at the aqueduct bridge in Gravina in Puglia, about 30 km away. The cemetery was built for the film, near the bridge.

Stand here

Stand in Piazza San Pietro Caveoso, below the rock church, with the Sasso Caveoso rising behind.

40.6664, 16.611

Visit

Best: Blue hour, when the Sassi light up. Access: Free to walk. Cave churches are ticketed. Getting there: Fly to Bari, then 1 hour by car. Sleep in a cave hotel.

Taste: Pane di Matera, the city's tall, crusty bread, and peperoni cruschi, crisp fried sweet peppers.