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Matera
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Photo by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Matera

Italy · Europe

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Matera

Tap a month for its page

  1. Matera in January: ok
  2. Matera in February: good
  3. Matera in March: good
  4. Matera in April: good
  5. Matera in May: sweet spot
  6. Matera in June: sweet spot
  7. Matera in July: avoid
  8. Matera in August: good, busy
  9. Matera in September: good, busy
  10. Matera in October: good, busy
  11. Matera in November: ok
  12. Matera in December: ok
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in May or Jun — 30C max, 2 rainy days. Apr is the next best.

Things to do in Matera

  • Matera Cathedral Roman Catholic church with a 90-m-high spire that stands out in the Matera skyline.
  • Church of San Giovanni Battista Church in Matera, Italy
  • San Pietro Caveoso Church in Matera, Italy
  • Palazzo dell'Annunziata Building in Matera, Italy
  • National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Basilicata Museum in Matera, Italy
  • Museo-laboratorio della Civiltà Contadina Museum in Italy
  • Chiesa madre di Santa Maria Maggiore Church in Miglionico (MT), Italy

Tours and tickets in Matera

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Matera), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 11° 6d 81% 6.9h ok 11C max, 6 rainy days
Feb 13° 5d 77% 8.2h good 13C max, 5 rainy days
Mar 14° 6d 74% 9.4h good 14C max, 6 rainy days
Apr 18° 6d 69% 10.4h good 18C max, 6 rainy days
May 23° 8d 64% 11.7h sweet spot 23C max, 8 rainy days
Jun 30° 2d 53% 13.2h sweet spot 30C max, 2 rainy days
Jul 33° 1d 46% 13.8h avoid extreme heat: 11 days over 35C
Aug 33° 2d 51% 12.8h goodbusy busier than usual
Sep 27° 2d 62% 11.0h goodbusy busier than usual
Oct 22° 5d 73% 9.1h goodbusy busier than usual
Nov 16° 7d 81% 6.9h ok 16C max, 7 rainy days
Dec 12° 5d 82% 6.9h ok 12C max, 5 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the Sassi: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from August to October; quietest in January, February, March and November.

Then and now

Matera's June days now average 30.1°C, 3.5°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 7 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–909.9°10.4°13.3°17.1°22.1°26.6°30.2°29.5°26.0°20.7°14.1°10.8°
2017–2610.5°12.6°14.4°18.0°22.9°30.1°33.3°32.7°27.4°21.8°16.3°12.3°
Change+0.7°+2.2°+1.1°+0.9°+0.8°+3.5°+3.1°+3.2°+1.4°+1.2°+2.1°+1.5°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Bari (BRI), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Bari.

Bari (BRI) the drive is not measured yet
Napoli (NAP) the drive is not measured yet

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Matera is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and F and L plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Euro. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for Italy: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — By law, shops, cafés and bars must take a card payment of any amount, and refusing one is fined. Carry a little cash for tips.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Not customary; restaurants outside Rome often add a cover charge (coperto). Leaving the change in cafés and taxis is common.

Getting around Matera

  • Apps — Rides: FreeNow, itTaxi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. In Rome these apps book licensed taxis; Uber also offers the dearer Uber Black.

After exiting Matera Centrale, there is a piazza to the left with various buses. From here, "Linea Sassi" buses to I Sassi di Matera every 30 min; the inexpensive tickets are sold upon boarding. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Matera, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — police 112 · ambulance 118 · fire 115.
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (105)

Matera in pictures

Matera from Piazzetta Pascoli 2930
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Isiwal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cathedral (Matera) 06
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Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

San Francesco d'Assisi (Matera)
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Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Matera Cattedrale 12
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Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Matera Cattedrale 04
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Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Matera is like

Matera is the capital of the Matera province in the Basilicata region of Italy. It boasts the sassi: well-preserved rock-cut settlements that are a World Heritage site and one of Southern Italy's many important attractions. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Old city. From the station walk down via Roma to Piazza Veneto and take the stairs down into the old city. Church of San Pietro Barisano. Matera Cathedral (Duomo di Matera), Piazza Duomo, 7. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Hike in the hills around Matera. For example walk down from the north east of the city, cross the ravine and hike back up the hill to the Belvedere di Murgia Timone for a view of the city from the other side. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Matera is most easily reached from Bari in the Apulia region. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Matera, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Matera

Also in Italy

Nearby

Kind of place

Matera is in Italy, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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