Rome, Italy, Mar 30, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The city of Matera in southern Italy, where Mel Gibson filmed “The Passion of the Christ,” has become a popular international tourist attraction, with travel agencies organizing “Passion Tours” to relive the movie about the last twelve hours of the life of Christ.
With it’s stone houses that are reminiscent of old Jerusalem, Matera was inscribed in 1993 as part of the Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO, but the images of “The Passion,” which were filmed in the churches, parks and streets, have given the city a new impulse.
The city government is designing a tourist route that will be indicated by signs and markers, pointing to the places where scenes from Gibson’s movie were filmed.
Travel agencies have begun offering trips to the city for a day or a weekend to show off the city’s beauty and the places where the most important scenes were shot.