Matera and the Basilicata Region: Accessibility, Infrastructures and Logistics as Challenges to Reconnect and Relaunch this Area in a Euro-Mediterranean Perspective

Matera as a Capital of Culture in 2019 is perhaps a unique opportunity to make the city fully accessible and ensure that it can be, with its vast area, a linkage in the internal relations of the Basilicata regionas well as with neighbouring regions (Campania, Puglia and Calabria) in a Euro-Mediterranean perspective. A first step involves the efficiency of the railway line Bari-Matera, and the definition of road lines to connect Matera with the airports of Bari and Taranto. One could take advantage of the Gulf of Metaponto and the port of Policoro to establish ferry lines and routes of lesser tonnage cruise ships devoted to luxury cruises. The connection to Matera could be guaranteed by road shuttles. In the medium term, also taking advantage of the impetus gained thanks to the events linked to Matera Capital of Culture, the construction of a transverse axis between the Tyrrhenian sea and the Adriatic Sea intersecting with the perpendicular axis of the Ionian Sea (area of Metaponto and Taranto Port area) could be started. Such a configuration would allow Matera and the Basilicata region to strengthen its internal market and make the most of relations with neighbouring regions, following an overall logic correctly represented by Territorial Supply Chains.