Puglia... aperto tutto l'anno

The coast: Beaches and Precipices
   The coastline is dented with narrow strips of sandy shore, once bordered with sand hillocks covered by a glory of psammophyious (sand vegetation) plants. Lying at the feet of precipitous cliffs are enchanting little beaches that change shape according to the irregular and impulsive rhythm of the waves beaten back by the cliffs. These cliffs are often lofty and inaccessible, yet they teem with caves and gorges that form a jagged coastline.
    Salento offers a varied coastline: narrow sandy shores give way to precipitous cliffs with marine caves and intimate and inviting coves.

Puglia Porta d'Oriente
   Puglia, the daughter of history. How can we describe a region that wherever we look she offers different sensations, new facets, rediscovered treasures, unexplored habitats, old traditions? This question accompanied us on our wanderings through this at-times solitary land. All its cities, towns, villages and hamlets left us with the conviction that it could never be possible to describe Puglia in full, as this strip of Italy with its coastline looking east over the Mediterranean is not all that meets the eye, or that you can touch and taste, but is represented more in the way its people welcome you, inviting you to admire, discover and enjoy.
   This is the sea of Ulysses! These are the cliffs of Aeneas! As soon as this land appeared, there burst a loud cry from Acate's throat: Italiam, Italiam! Driven by strong and favourable winds, Aeneas's ship sails at full speed into the harbour, which is still recognizable, through Virgil's description.

SALENTO: THE DOOR OF EAST
   Otranto, a "crossroad of cultures," is a place where the student can meet the past cultures: the Arabs, the Greeks, the Messapians, the Spanish, the Normans, the Celts, and the Swabians. Students can also find signs of primitive peoples (caves with primitive drawings, dolmen and menhir can be found all over the countryside).  Land of transit, all ancient people travelling between East and West left their mark.
    Salento begins at Lecce and ends on the heel of Italy . It moved to east as if a Greek God, to enjoy himself, had thrown the boot towards him. "Land of Otranto" was called the Salento, land of Normans. The town that gave the name to this land was a small Mediterranean power leaned out on the East with its monasteries as San Nicola of Casole, one of the most cultured and sophisticated places in Europe during the XIII century. There precious manuscripts were copied, there people spoke Greek and Latin, there people landed from Paris as from Bisanzio. The monastery of Casole had from the XI to the XV century in the whole South of Italy a cultural role which anticipated the Humanistic movement of northern Italy. Here flourished an active center of studies that picked up the ancient Greek-Latin codes. For the first time in Europe, in the "scriptorium casolano" rose in 1160, the Students' House, the second rose in London in 1183. 
    The School of Casole became the meeting-point of researchers of Eastern and Western Europe, who exchanged codes, experiences, and knowledge.
    In the Salento man breathes a particular atmosphere haunted by indefinite presences. It is a land of dolmen and menhir, of prehistoric caves of extraordinary importance, archaeological sites, and places that seem like magic. It is celebrated by the most famous writers such as Virgilio (Enea landed at the Salento to found Rome) or Horace Walpole, the English writer of 1700 who wrote the novel "The Castle of Otranto"; land which is subject of historical and anthropological studies from foreign researchers of international fame.
   The chief town of the province is Lecce, "the Florence of Southern Italy". It is a town where losing oneself is, more than an accident on the way. It is a duty of the intellect. Lecce, home of the Baroque, is more than an architectural style, a way to relive past. Time in Lecce passes through its tortuous streets, through places that you would never recognize, because the streets change perspective continuously. Lastly, the Salento, finis terrae, is a winding land that lives through the nuances of the imagination.

Click below to visit the photogallery of
The town of Lecce - The Grecìa Salentina - The South Coast