This is our 'want to be' new location for our Church. The three doors that are shown would be those rooms we would rent.

 The designer/ architect showed us the lay out and that this new building meets earthquake requirements and has a water storage tank that will support all the complex for 10 days. THAT is wonderful since there are times when the city water is shout off for days!

 This is such a beautiful building and location and the price is less than what we are paying now, of course there needs to be some work on it to make it a functioning church the space now is empty, no walls but very nice floors. The space was used as retail before.

 I should have show the whole plaza.  It is a "U' shaped complex with the same looking structure on the opposite side and along the back.

 We went over after come visits Sunday night to see what the traffic was like and how busy the area would be.

I guess the crowds aren't too bad!?!! We have dreams about living there too! It is always good to dream.

 The people who built this city in the beginning came to this place because of the caves which allowed them to hide and be concealed.

 Inside one the many caves we saw.

 That use to be a river , now just a small stream.

 The ancient city below the newer city.

Another church with the gateway into the ancient place of the original Matera.

 This is looking up at a church, it looks like a stone-- mostly because it is carved out of a mountain.

 A different shot of the church carved out of the mountain.

 And the last shot of the mountain church-- it all concealed so as to go unnoticed from the enemy.

 Matera is called the city of many stairs.

 It is unusual to find a church WITHOUT a dragon, they all seem to have one somewhere.

 Another wonder we see often, large trees growing out of little to NO ground!

 This is in the ancient part of Matera, this part is as old and older than Jerusalem and has been used as the back drop for many Christian movies about the life of Christ, including the Passion.

 Looking out our apartment window, you can see the ravine and part of the old city.

 VERY rare to have a parking place with your apartment!

 Bedroom and entry.

 A stairway the is steep and long!

 Across the street is a narrow open space that looks down into the old part of the city.

 One side is a city carved out of rock and the other is the more natural ravine.

 inside and outside

 On our way to Matera-- Ma-tear-raw, we passed by this unique entry for someones residence. It is made up of the giant skull and many olive press stones.

 This Van in front of us was from Romania-- who would thought we would see a van from there? 

 The country side was in varying shades of green, very lovely and in JANUARY!

 Our sign to Matera.

Many have asked why it is taking so long to build the temple in Rome. This shell of a building is what you see a great deal of here in Italy! Built to a point and then either corruption, lack of funding or not a large enough bribe puts a halt to the project.