SALENTO
Salento is to be found in the most eastern part of Italy, an enigmatic border between the clear eastern skies and the windy coastal ones. The mountains of Albania and of Epiro on the horizon resemble placed at the meeting of those two worlds.
Here in the language of the old people one may hear echoes of the Phoenician and Byzantine expressions and even some Albanian together with dialect which is peppered with Arabian.
Salento is where the low and rounded greenhouses are by the sea. Salento, by nature one of the damper areas in Italy from the oasis of Torre Guaceto at the gates of Brindisi to the natural reserve of Cesine, not far from Lecce, where one can find the lakes of Alimini, the marine life of Porto Selvaggio and the underwater life of Porto Cesareo.
Here the coast has unforgettable charm and the little coves, hidden like tears, as sweet as a prayer. The endless blue expanse that runs to Leuca seems to be almost at the edge of the world, like an Apulian Cape Horn or a stately lighthouse standing erect as if watching for the return of the sailors. When the abundant sand of the Ionian Sea appears, there is a continual tropical shoreline which is baked by the sun.
Moving on one can meet the Salento of landscapes.
The inland area of Salento counts a hundred of little villages each with its own square and bell towers with houses like those of Central America, sleepy with the sound of crickets and dozy in the warmth. The stony Salento and the Salento of the lush Mediterranean merge together.
There is also the Salento of art. Firstly there is the "Baroque triangle" of Lecce, Martina Franca and Ceglie Messapica which like the Bermuda triangle has a magnetic power that almost makes you lose yourself. Lecce is the Florence of southern Italy, rich with decorations that are sculptures created using the engraver's art rather than a chisel. These are highly embellished intaglios, finely detailed like a swarm of bees, so obsessive and sparkling that they stun you with their air of joy, majesty and excessiveness.
Lecce is the only elegant , sumptuous, luxurious and sunny display of the Baroque in the open air: a miracle of the local stone so soft and yielding that it is gently stroked by the blade in the same way that a painter uses his brush. The wonderful façade of Santa Croce explodes with this striking decoration, a triumph of the Baroque style with its Piazza del Duomo which brings peace to the soul of any tourist and is one of the most beautiful squares in Italy. It has a bell tower that stretches up to the sky like a skyscraper and has a wonderful balance of perspective and space. There is also Sant'Oronzo, the most elegant part of the town, the pillar of the blessed patron saint, a Roman amphitheatre and the Palazzo del Seggio and all around are aristocratic palaces, balustrades, little gateways and coat of arms. Lecce is the beautiful city in the whole of Salento.
Further on you find Gallipoli described as the landed town by the sea, surrounded with bastions, like a child in a cradle. Throughout history it has been fought over because of its strategic position, with the most ancient and poetic part called the "island of light" by the ever present sea.
There is the beautiful town of Otranto where the shooting of cannons in the alleys of its historical centre from the significant August of 1480 has left its mark in the history of Christianity, together with the bones of the seven hundred martyrs killed by the swords of the Saracens of Achmet Pascia in a nightmare of death. The very romantic cathedral is dominated by the Tree of Life that covers the floor in a wonderful mosaic.
From Otranto to Leuca, from the tourist villages to the palace-like aristocratic houses, before the union of the Adriatic and Ionian sea, rocky Salento reveals one jewel after another. From Santa Cesarea Terme to Castro and Tricase with houses running from the top down to the sea.
Salento shows its hospitality always leaving a seat at the table because even the most common guest could well be a God in disguise.
There was faith, magic and mystery among the twelve thousand years that man spent in the Romanelli caves, and three thousand pictures of our ancestors of Porto Badisco, the bats in the Zinzulusa, the endless eyes that from the Centopietre di Ptù, an anguishing burial monument, seem to look at us in an infinity of time.
At the end Galatina resounds of the "pizzica" that with the convulsive desire of dancing free the people poisoned by an inexistent spider. This completes the surprises of a land that has never been wholly discovered.


TARANTO AND IONIAN SEA
This area of Apulia has the most Grecian influence; here science, architecture and philosophy have developed significantly and there is evidence to show that art and handicrafts have evolved from that of a Greek model.
Almost three thousand years of history exist here for you to enjoy it.
Taranto is a multi-faceted town with important cultural and artistic traditions, with wonderful prehistoric remains and richly frescoed crypts. It also has a golden bay and fertile countryside along the Ionian coast. The land is full of citrus fruits, traditional authentic handicrafts and sunny beaches with sand dunes. All these features, and more, make Taranto a most noble district.