That’s what brought us to Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, an 18-room albergo diffuso ("scattered hotel") built into centuries-old caves in the mountainside city of Matera in southern Italy.

While Amfitheatrof’s property is private, other spectacular cave hotels can be found elsewhere ... In the most ancient part of the city of Matera, there’s the dramatic Sextantio Le Grotte ...

On the northern edge of this famed UNESCO city, eying the sassi (Matera's spooky cave-pocked landscape), the Gravina gorge and the river below, this hotel exploits its mix of ancient tufa homes ...