Matera was a great experence. I got to walk around the unique old Sassi and tread the cobbled streets of history and Hollywood films. I also met up with Roberto and Angelo from Fondazione SoutHeritage www.southeritage.it who gave me an insite into contemporary art in the South and the new Matera -how the residence of the Sassi where relocated into social housing in the 1950's. Experts were employed to cunger up a new environments for the once 'impoverish' ill healthed cave dwellers. Whilst giving them a more modern style of life they also tried to retain a social structure through architecture and street planning. This included comunal green areas for growing food (now used to park cars or to grow grass) and internal streets between and through blokes of flats. Whether this worked or not no one likes being told to move from their families home. A better life I dont know but the Sassi is now being regenerated by the tourist industry so couldn't have been all that bad.
One of the 1950 social housing projects (reminded me
a little of the wire but on a good day)
