Visit Palombaro Lungo (The Long Diver), Matera, Italy

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The Palombaro Lungo is the largest underground water cistern in the city of Matera and is located beneath the pavement of Piazza Vittorio Veneto, where rainwater and spring water from the hills of La Nera, Lapillo, and Macamarda converge. Together with other underground cisterns, it forms the famous underground Matera; the cistern is part of a water collection system that extends the entire length of the Sassi di Matera and was essential to supply its inhabitants. The cistern has rounded calcarenite walls, covered with a waterproof plaster, cocciopesto (an ancient technique, known to Mediterranean populations, to prevent water from being absorbed by the calcarenite rocks ). The Palombaro is approximately 18 meters high and 50 meters wide and has a capacity of approximately 5 million liters of water. The people of Matera obtained supplies from the Palombaro Lungo by lowering small buckets through two external holes; some of the buckets used were lost and can now be found in a small, dry area, once submerged, commonly called "the little beach."

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