Italy's high tech in ancient cave city

BBC:

A cave city, abandoned in the 1950s, has become the base for several high-technology companies.

As you arrive in Matera by car, it looks like many other Italian cities in the poor south - slightly scruffy, but with a lively feel.

It is only when you drive off the plateau where the new town was built, into the old town clinging to the side of a valley, that you realise it is actually an extraordinary place.

The historic area known as the "Sassi" (the stones) is a cave city. Some dwellings are little more than caves with a door on the front.

Others have elaborate fronts, hiding the cave quarters behind.

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Now the empty caves are coming back to life. We found large computer servers, with their lights blinking, tucked away in cave rooms once occupied by people and animals.

A call centre company called Datacontact has taken over a whole complex. Their computers are in one cave, the people answering calls are in others.

It is as if the hollowed-out rooms have jumped from the prehistoric era to the 21st Century, bypassing much of history.

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There is more in this interesting story.