Salento

A sub-peninsular area of Puglia, Salento, also known as the “heel of Italy”, on the west is washed by the Adriatic Sea (on its rocky and jagged coast the historical towns of Otranto, Santa Cesarea Terme, Castro Marina and Tricase Porto are located) and on the east by the Ionian Sea (whose sandy coast runs from Santa Maria di Leuca to Porto Cesareo crossing Gallipoli and the marinas of Ugento).
Salento means many things: it is bright sun, crystal sea, wild nature, country and rural life, history, culture and traditions. Everything in this corner of Puglia seems to emerge from the rocks, from the typical stone refuges and fences created thanks to the building skills of the rural world to the towers, the castles and the cathedrals of Salento towns.
Walking through the dense network of estates of the Puglia countryside you can admire the endless expanses of century-old olive trees, trulli, pajare, lamie and ancient farms, typical examples of a fascinating rural architecture. The villages of Salento inland keep among the narrow and twisted lanes of their historical centres Basilian crypts, hypogean oil-mills, Byzantine churches and medieval castles, signs of the different rules to which this land of navigators was subjected over the centuries. The most southern province of Puglia and baroque capital of Salento, Lecce appears as a stone stage. The façades of the sumptuous churches of Lecce, as well as every balcony, gallery, portal, pillar or rose of the beautiful palaces of this town were made with the extraordinary stone of Lecce. Among the lanes of Lecce's historical centre and of the small villages of its province you can admire the small workshops of the local artisans, who have managed to keep and transmit the ancient manufacturing techniques of the stone of Lecce, wood, wrought iron, papier-mâché, ceramic and terracotta.
In summer the small villages of Salento are crowded by tourists and there are several feasts where you can taste the typical products of the territory and listen to the primordial sound of Lecce tambourine, playing the notes of the pizzica, a suggestive dance having its roots in the rural world.