Matera: 3-Hour Guided Sassi Tour with Idris Church & Tasting

We chose this particular tour as it included a tasting of local specialties - and what better way to discover Italy than through food🍕 Much to my surprise we didn’t get any tastings at all. I have contacted the organisers on two different channels (whatsapp and email) and received no response whatsoever. This leads me to believe that it was not an honest mistake and that they don’t care if the service they delivered was incomplete. I recommend choosing another provider, unless you want to pay for something you didn’t get.

We booked a 3 hours for scheduled for 10 am requiring us to arrive at 950 am. Upon arrival, we were told to return at 10:30 instead. We did and then just had a 2 hour tour. Our guide left us at the last stop (where we were having tastings and given opportunity to spend money) because she had another tour starting at 1230. This tour did not use headphones. The guide had a mini speaker attached to her belt which we could understand if we stood close enough. Unfortunately, she would have away from us but continue talking. Between my lousy heading, the guide's lousy sound system & her thick accent, I only understood about 30%. Matera is beautiful with fascinating culture. This overview of the city's history is worth seeing but it could have been more enjoyable return the aforementioned issues addressed.

it was pouring down rain that day and we are three women in our 60s who while we can walk we cannot take the risk of walking and pouring down rain and slipping and falling on the slick Stone of the city which can be slippery even in dry conditions. the tour operator refused to reschedule us even when we offered to take a 30 minute Sunset tour in the evening when it would not be raining which cost $20 instead of $65 and we were going to let them keep the difference but they were not amenable to working with us in any way so we ended up losing $65 on this tour because it was pouring down rain. they had a $20 Sunset bus tour that evening when the rain would have stopped and they wouldn't allow us to switch over to that and lose the difference. not very good I don't want to deal with this company anymore

Our guide, Maria, is a history enthusiast and provided excellent historical narrative as she guided us through the Sassi di Matera. She was thorough in all that she showed us. We visited a number of the major churches, she pointed out the Palumbaro to visit later on our own, went inside a gallery where she showed us a scale model of the Sassi to provide perspective of the Caveoso and Barisano, and guided us to view points and through the labyrinth of streets, with constant historical commentary. She is an expert of the area and helped us decode the labyrinth of streets here in the Sassi to the point where they made sense so we could return and explore further on our own. Maria is excellent in what she does as a guide, and we enjoyed her enthusiasm for the area. Shecwas a joy to be with. We would highly recommend her to anyone wanting to learn more about the Sassi di Matera.