The Southern Part Of Apulia: The Salento

Salento is to be found in the most Eastern part of Italy, an enigmatic border between the clear Eastern skies and those of the windy coast. The mountains of Albania and of Eprio, both of which are evident on the horizon and seem to have been placed so as to resemble the meeting of those two worlds. Here in the language of the old people, one may detect even a hint of Phoenician and  witness some Byzantine expression, Albanian or occasionally dialect peppered with Arabian. Our Mediterranean sea is known to everyone; it is the same sea that one can find in Dalmatia and Israel, Tunisia and Marocco. It is most welcoming but at the sane tune it cab be frightening, a point of arrival for every language and civilisation combined with the terror heard within the ancient cry of “ Mamma li turchi” ( Mummy, look! The Turks!) This same sea is home to the coastal watchtowers, where the people once shivered in fear of the arrival of the aforementioned Turks. In the south one can find palm trees and prickly pears while in the north there lawns and bristly pinewoods all living in total harmony together. Salento is where the low greenhouses are found by the sea. Salento is naturally one of the damper areas of Italy. From the oasis Of Torre Guaceto at the gates of Brindisi to the natural reserve of Cesine, not far from Lecce, visitors can find the lakes Alimini brimming with various fish and wonderful marine life evident at Porto Selvaggio and Porto Cesareo. Here the coast has unforgettable charm, such as, the little caves, 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 Apulia Cape Horn or a stately lighthouse standing tall awaiting the return of the sailors. When the abundant sand of the Ionian appears, one can see a continual tropical shoreline basking in the sun. Moving on to the Salentinian landscape, one can find the “ white town” of Ostuni, which, when viewed at night seems to resemble  a spaceship on its  way thorough outer space, an illusion created due to the wonderful lights of Ostuni shining in the dark night sky.  The inland are of Salento has hundreds of little villages, each with its own square and bell tower, houses similar those in central America, sleepy with the sound of crickets  and dozy in the hazy warmth. This is the stony Salento of “Pagghiare” together  with the lush Mediterranean evergreens. There is also the Salento of art, such as, the “Baroque Triangle” of Lecce, Martina Franca and Ceglie Messapica which , like the Bermuda Triangle, has a magnetic power, potent in its ability to almost makes on lose oneself. Lecce is the “Florance” of Southern Italy, rich in beauty. Sculptures created using the actual artistic ability of the engraver rather than the chisel. These are highly embellished engravings, 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 baroque art 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. One can almost hear the singing of chisels as they work, the wonderful façade of Santa Croce explodes with this striking decoration. It a triumph of Baroque style with its Piazza del Duomo bringing peace to the soul of any tourist, one of the most beautiful squares in Italy. It has a bell tower that stretches up to the sky like a sky scraper, and has a wonderful balance of perspective and space.  There is also Sant’Oronzo, the most elegant part of town, the pillar of the blesses patron saint. The Roman amphitheatre and Palazzo del Seggio are both, not to be missed, and all round the aristocratic palaces, balustrades, little gateways and coats of arm. Lecce is a beautiful city, the most beautiful in the whole of the Salentinian area. Gallipoli has been described as “the landed town by the sea, surrounded by bastions, like a child in a cradle”. Throughout history it has been fought over due to its strategic position, with the most ancient and poetic part called the “island of light” by the ever present sea trying to escape towards the East.  There is the beautiful town of Otranto, characteristic more for its history than its beauty, where the shooting of cannons in the alleys of this historical centre from the August of 1480 has left its mark on the story of Christianity.
Here lay the bones of the seven hundred martyrs killed by the swords of the Saracens of Achmet Pascia in a nightmare of death. The cathedral in which this slaying took place is dominated by the “Tree of Life” mosaic that covers the whole of the floor in a wonderful mosaic. From Otranto to Leuca, from the tourist villages to the palace-like aristocratic houses, from the union of the Adriatic and the Ionian seas, rocky Salento reveals one jewel after another. From Santa Cesarea Terme to Castro Marina and Tricase with houses running from the top right down to the sea. How that hospitality always a seat at the table, because even the most humble of guests could well be a god in disguise. There was faith, there was magic and mystery in those twelve thousand years that man spent in the Romanelli caves, there are three thousand pictures of our ancestors of Porto Badisco, and there are the bats in the Zinzulusa caves. At the end, Galatina still resounds with the “Pizzica”, and the “convulsive desire to dance”. A dance that freed the people poisoned by a non-existent spider. This completes the surprises of a land that has never been wholly discovered.