European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 21, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                June 2007 stars and stripes Page 23 a return to the caves Southern italian town revives its ancient Rock dwellings by Carol Pucci the Seattle times Icola Rizzi stands in his boyhood Home in where chickens and ducks used to closes his eyes and smells bean soup and Tomato sauce boiling on pots heated by Wood he was a survivor in a neighbourhood of windowless caves and Damp where animals and humans slept Side beside and half the Chil Dren born there among them three of his Brothers and mostly Rizzi remembers the smell of baking his father owned a communal oven where people would bring their dough for him to bake into fat loaves big enough to last a its a says Tak ing a deep that i still have in my it was the smell of one that his family and mostly poor peasant were forced by the government to evacuate in the Early 1950s after italian artist and writer Carlo Levi published an account of the squalid living conditions there in  Cave dwellings called the Christ never came this nor did nor the individual nor Levi wrote in Christ stopped at a Book he wrote in the the title refers to the town of Eboli in neighbouring suggest ing that not even Christ could have ventured into an area so desolate As and certainly not to the houses were open on account of the and As i went by i could see into the whose Only Light came in through the front on the floor Lay goats and most families have just one Cave to live in and there they sleep All together children and Levi was a schoolboys idea of Dantes in striped Vest and Bow Agostino Tataranno dispenses some of the Best pastries and cappuccino in Italy from behind the bar at Caffe Tripoli on Piazza Vittorio Materas mar bled main men gather Here to talk poli and couples walk each evening during a Community stroll called the theres a University nearby with a Lively arts elegant a Roque style buildings painted in faded Pink and yellow line the streets and perched on the Edge of a deep this is modern a bustling upper town that Over looks the ancient which Are spread out below on the slopes of a Rocky act photos the italian government moved peasants from ancient Cave dwellings in in the now people Are going Back to establish hotels and other businesses in the below an Interior View of the Locanda i san a hotel and conference Center built in the dug into the Stone Cliffs Are hundreds of Sand coloured Cav erns carved out of soft volcanic Tufa some with buildup Brick fronts and elaborate facades and doorways that make them hard to distinguish from Ordinary layered one on top of the other so that the terraces of some Are roofs for there connected by a Maze of winding Stone passageways starting a few Steps away from the edges of the upper abandoned for More than a Quarter Century after the govern ment relocated the residents to Public housing following Publica Tion of Levis Book in the Sassi italian for stones again Are drawing this time the stories Are focused on the Art treasures uncovered in ancient Rock churches and the transformation of the caves into luxury restaurants and offices for High tech Dorothy Zinn welcomed my husband and me to the Locanda i san a hotel and con Ference Center that she and her italian husband opened three years ago in the Sassi after the government began offering Lon term leases and subsidies to a family of six and one animal used to live in what is now the san Martinos chiselled out of Stone Are 28 rooms on five Levels connected by an outdoor network of Stone an elevator goes to the first two but we climbed the 75 Steps to our fifth floor it was a cozy Flintstones Metthe future Cave with curvy Stone ceilings and All the modern con including heat and air three Small Nicola Rizzi grew up in the Matera caves and now Heads a cultural organization dedicated to preserving windows were chiselled out of the Bare Rock and there were slippers for walking on the Bare terracotta Zinn sent us to dinner at a candlelit Cave restaurant called la we sat at in a Stone Alcove and ate the local pasta with asparagus and fresh Ricotta we climbed the stairs Back to our listening to Church Bells ringing and dogs the nighttime sounds of a town where people get around mostly by Mel Gibson scouted the world for a place that looked like ancient Jerusalem when he filmed the passion of the and settled on the Sassi recruiting the locals As extras and eating Mediterranean sea stars and stripes nightly at Antica Trattoria Luca where fettuccine Alia Mel Gibson is still on the locals dont always agree about the various new uses of the caves the latest is a Swank wine bar with an 18holeputting Green in the Bottom of a Public but the revival of the Sassi has been an economic boost to one of Italy poorest life in the caves dates to pre historic making Matera one of the oldest cities in the from the eighth to the 13th monks used them As digging out tiny Chap Els and elaborate Leav ing behind delicate whole neighbourhoods evolved with shops and Homes with intricate Hydraulic systems to keep the water fresh and Cool the Sassi began to decay As the upper town finally becoming Homes for poor peas ants who used them for barns and for two or three people didst realize the value of the says a historian who now Heads Circolo la Scalet a cultural organization that pushed to have the Sassi declared a Enesco world Heri Tage site in where some saw abandoned Rizzi remembered a Community where his family knew their not always by but by the smell of the Oneo faking yeast each used to make their the National shame included not Only the but also the he even As an 11yearold i started asking Why should i be ashamed of where i live with people Back living in the Sassi and property values Angelo president of the Cassis largest is looking ahead More than faced with the need to find new office space for 750 workers in his company expanding Call Center whose father was born in the acquired one of the Lon term he installed phone lines and a million computer sys see Page 30