Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Our House-in-a-Cave Rental in Matera, Italy

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

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Even with the ambitious day of travel we had planned going from Salerno to Matera, we made every connection.

There were 2 buses and 3 trains and several of them were late! Rain and drizzle were predicted for both Salerno and Matera, but neither happened.

Sure, we were tired and had pushed ourselves a bit, but we had no issues really. That is, until we arrived in Matera and tried to find the house we rented.

Matera is an ancient city made of stone and tiny alleyways and Google maps was grumpy. Simply not helpful at all.

I asked waiters at restaurants where the actual street was, and one pointed this way and the other pointed that way.

Along with translation problems with the property manager, we spent over an hour looking in a very small area for the house. Of course we had our luggage with us - which wasn't much until you consider that everywhere you look there are steps up and down, tiny lanes and bitty avenues of bumpy rock some of which we had already scoured and still couldn't find our rental.

Enough was enough, and we finally WhatsApp'd the manager and said "Sorry but we are lost. Come find us and take us there."

The steep little passageway to another opening on the left to reach our apartment

You can see from this photo how small and steep some of these walking paths were.

The young property manager had sent us photos of flower pots to give us an indication of where our house was located, but "everyone" had flower pots in front of their doors.

That was also not helpful.

Why not simply give us a photo of this sign? Or at least the name of this tavern.

So. Much. Clearer.

But such was not the case.

Since the Tavern was closed, one could easily walk past it on the street as a non-event. The sign for the tavern was around the bend and easy to miss, so we didn't notice it at all.

The center door was our rental

Finally, a well-built and healthy man named Francisco found us near an outdoor restaurant where we were waiting.

He smiled at us and spoke no English. Immediately he grabbed my rollie and walked in the opposite direction of where we were standing.

Up the street and down the lane to this end-of-the-line place with four doors.

Our rental was the middle black iron door.

We were located next to the tavern and the boxes and herbs you see belong to them.

The bright modern kitchen

Thank God getting inside the house, was easy enough.

The total for our rental was $1,000 Euros for 10 nights with breakfast included.

Food on the back table, water bottles on the stairs

Through all of this, Francisco was wonderful, kind and patient.

He said he lived out in the country on a ranch and he left us a flat of eggs for breakfast, a whole round of cheese in the refrigerator and 2 bottles of olive oil from local production.

Food on the back table also included toasted bread in a package - which is big here in Europe - some tea choices, milk, drinking water in bottles on the steps and juice. 

There was an espresso machine also, but we could not get it to work.

The view from the kitchen to the outside alley and into living room

Actually, it was unclear to us that we were to be living in a renovated cave.

We have been told by several people that their dream was to live in a cave.

However, I want to make clear here that - to us - there was no romantic view of this.

Billy and I are "Sun People" and the door you see here was our only natural light.

The rest of the living area was deep underground and perhaps it was our imagination, but living under tons of rock was... heavy! We could feel that density and over the time we stayed there, we went outside as much as possible. In this way we received natural sunlight and broad vistas to shake off that "bomb shelter/basement/survival cave" feeling.

A closer look at our food supplies

Now mind you, the house was painted bright white, was spacious and very clean.

Our brand new appliances worked and we had enough electric outlets for our computer needs and the refrigerator was large.

The property manager called us cheerfully every morning.

BUONJIOURNO!! she cheerfully chirped on the phone.

"Is there anything I can do for you? Can I book a tour? Do you want to go down to the Sassi? To an olive farm? Have you ever tasted fried olives? Should I book you for this or that or this or that??

The girl was sweet and was only doing her job, but after a few days, Billy would simply hand his cell phone to me. From then on I was the one who communicated with her and basically told her that we are independent travelers and we enjoy our privacy. If we need anything at all or if we had questions, I would let her know.

This was very confusing to her, but she understood.

We think most tourists stay in Matera for one to three nights and they want to squeeze in everything they can in this short time period.

But in our case, we were booked for 10 nights and wanted to take our time.

Our bedroom from the living room

This photo was taken from the living room into our bedroom.

The archway leads to another room that had closets, some comfortable chairs and a baby crib.

We had plenty of artificial light so the home was not dark.

Photo of living room from the bedroom

As you can see, there was plenty of  room and we were not cramped at all.

This view takes you to the living room and up the steps is the bathroom.

Behind the curtain on the left was a room with cleaning supplies, mop, broom, Windex and such.

Another thing that one might not know about living in a cave, is that there is a lot of moisture.

Walking in from the outside it was like walking into a sauna immediately. We needed to keep the dehumidifier on continuously or it was like wandering through the rain forest.

We had plenty of towels and extra linen for the bed.

The bathroom

We had lots of hot water, which was great.

Hot water with two people showering at separate times creates steam. With no ventilation outdoors... this humidity just added to the rainforest feeling.

I needed to mop the dampness off the bathroom floor daily.

Bathroom supplies were provided.

Living room

This is the living room.

It's all open-spaced which we liked.

As I mentioned before, with all the dampness in the house, the dust on our shoes turned into a light mud on the flooring. I mopped every day just to keep the light colored tile from turning brown in our pathways.

This was actually a decent home to rent... just simply not our style.

We prefer LOTS of natural light, windows and perhaps a veranda with a view.

But it was an experience we'll never forget.

Would we recommend renting this location in Matera?

We would have to say that it's a personal choice. We learned that the number one thing to do in Matera or Sassi (the ancient village below) was to rent out a room in a cave.

So if you would like to fulfill that dream, then perhaps this is the place for you!

__________

Acasadefelice

1 Via Domenico Ridola

Matera, 75100, Italy

Telephone: +39 3290386921

For more stories, photos and videos of Italy, click here

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Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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