We highly recommend visiting the ancient city of Matera. It is a beautiful place with amazing history, Matera dates back to 15,000 BC and is one of the oldest cities in the world. The whole city is built around the ancient ruins where people used to live in caves and some still did into the 1950s. If you can swing it, we highly recommend staying in one of the hotel/spas built into the caves. Below are a couple hotel recs. 1. www.aquatiohotel.com 2. www.sextantio.it
Highly recommend finding some time to visit Craco, being there is both eerie and magical and well worth the visit. Craco is a historic Italian ghost town in Basilicata, founded by Greeks around 540 AD, evolving from a medieval stronghold with a Norman tower into a prosperous town known as "Graculum" or "little plowed field" before facing landslides, earthquakes, and poverty, leading to its final abandonment in the 1980s, leaving behind haunting ruins used in films like The Passion of the Christ.
Metaponto's beach, known as Lido di Metaponto, is a wide, sandy stretch on the Ionian coast famous for its fine golden sand clear blue waters, and shallow, family-friendly seabed. Stay at Hotel San Vincenzo in Metaponto or book an Airbnb close to the shoreline. Spend your days at a local beach club, lounging under an umbrella with rented chairs and an Aperol Spritz in hand. Around midday, wander up from the water for lunch at one of the fantastic nearby restaurants. Swimming in the Ionian Sea feels truly magical, and Metaponto’s beach is an ideal place to unwind and soak up the sun for a couple of days.