I've spent over a year traveling throughout Italy, and I was starting to think I'd seen everything that could blow me away. Then, I ended up in Matera. Well, well off the beaten path in southern Italy's Basilicata region, the sassi (caves) of Matera housed modern-day residents until the 1970s. Some of these residents now give tours of where they lived as kids -- in caves with their farm animals and no utilities. Stunningly beautiful, many of the caves are now hotels or art galleries.
