I nod in and out of sleep. 10:30 a.m.: We arrive in what we will soon understand to be "new" Matera—the part of the city erected after the Italian government’s 1950 mandate to evacuate the Sassi.

We came for the caves. We stayed for the candles. You might already know the Sassi di Matera. Despite (or because of?) this architectural wonder’s remoteness in the instep of Italy’s boot ...