Rosarian49's photostream  

Same cavern as previous photo, showing a different view, with the kitchen on the left.
See www.flickr.com/photos/secretgardens/6937903549/

One of the "houses" dug into the calcareous rock, with original furniture, now a small museum. The "house" comprises just one room, where the whole familiy used to live and work (mind the weaving loom on the left). There were even two alcoves used as "stables" for mules or donkeys. In reality, one has to imagine this place to be much darker and less tidy at the time it was inhabited.
The inhabitants of the cavern houses were relocated by the government in the 1950s for hygienic reasons. Only recently authorities, developers and tourists have started to rediscover these caverns. Some have even been converted into hotels.

Matera has gained international fame for its "Sassi" (meaning "stones"). The Sassi are houses dug into the calcareous rock, which is characteristic of Basilicata and Apulia. Many of these "houses" are really only caverns; an example appears in this photostream. The ancient town grew in height on one slope of the ravine created by a river known as Gravina, seen on the right. After yet another typhoid epidemic in the 1950s, the Italian government relocated most of the population of the Sassi to areas of the developing modern city.
Matera preserves a large and diverse collection of churches and chapels, including a large number of rupestrian churches carved from the soft volcanic rock of the region. The Cathedral from the 13th Century can be seen on the right. Best on black.

Metapontum was an important city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf of Tarentum, founded by Achaean settlers perhaps around 700 BC. There is not much left from the Greek times, this Hera temple being the best preserved example. It is of the Doric order, but most likely of later date than the two famous Hera temples of Paestum south of Naples. Best on black.

Not really, but after the warmest year in Switzerland in recorded history, we're now experiencing the coldest winter in 30 years, so we try to protect our tender shrubs and trees as well as we can. These here are three Camellias sasanqua, about 2 meters tall. Fortunately, garden centers here offer a choice of frost protection covers. When trees are taller than, say, 2,50 meters, protection gets difficult, if not impossible, so often you can only protect the trunk, as we do with our Lagerstroemia. On the other hand, older trees are usually less prone to frost damage than younger ones, so we keep our fingers crossed. Picture taken at the beginning of February 2012.