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Un vero e proprio must

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Castro Marina

Castro Marina

Questo pezzo di costa è ricco di grotte naturali, e il paesino bianco di Castro non fa eccezione. Nella sua parte bassa (la Marina, appunto) troverete la Grotta della Zinzulusa, forse la più famosa di tutto il Salento. Un vero e proprio must della vacanza salentina.

Un vero e proprio must

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Prenota il tuo soggiorno

Questo pezzo di costa è ricco di grotte naturali, e il paesino bianco di Castro non fa eccezione. Nella sua parte bassa (la Marina, appunto) troverete la Grotta della Zinzulusa, forse la più famosa di tutto il Salento. Un vero e proprio must della vacanza salentina.

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Vicino Gallipoli, come sulla Luna

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Punta Suina

Punta Suina

Poco distante da Gallipoli, quando arriverete a Punta Suina, vi sembrerà di essere sulla Luna. Poi il vento e i profumi della macchia mediterranea vi ricorderanno che siete in Salento. Sempre comunque in un angolo di paradiso. Ovviamente con un mare limpidissimo.

Vicino Gallipoli, come sulla Luna

Poco distante da Gallipoli, quando arriverete a Punta Suina, vi sembrerà di essere sulla Luna. Poi il vento e i profumi della macchia mediterranea vi ricorderanno che siete in Salento. Sempre comunque in un angolo di paradiso. Ovviamente con un mare limpidissimo.

the strangest name, the most beautiful beach

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Punta Prosciutto

Punta Prosciutto

Let us start with the name, because it is unavoidable. The origin of the name has never been definitively resolved, but it seems to derive from the fact that this area once had shallow, marshy seabeds which were then drained, described in Salentine dialect as "prisutti". From there to prosciutto was not much of a leap. A quirky name for a beach that in 2019 the British newspaper the Telegraph included among the 29 most beautiful beaches in the world. Those you need to see at least once in your life, on a par with Hawaii or Thailand.

Punta Prosciutto is one of the most beautiful beaches in Salento and all of Puglia, located in the municipality of Porto Cesareo in the province of Lecce, within the 32-km Marine Protected Area. The beach extends for about 4 km along the Ionian coast of Salento, bounded to the north by Torre Colimena and to the south by Riva degli Angeli, wrapped in ancient Mediterranean scrub. The sea, extraordinarily clear, takes on shades ranging from turquoise to emerald, with shallow sandy bottoms that slope gently. A large part of this paradise consists of free beach: this makes this natural wonder even rarer and more precious. What characterises the shoreline is the presence of so-called "spunnulate", karst depressions filled with water that create a unique habitat for many plant and animal species. The location is part of the nature reserve "Palude del Conte e Duna Costiera", a protected area of over 600 hectares established in 2006, where you can admire precious and rare fauna and flora species, such as the kingfisher, moorhens, marsh bellflowers and bog orchids. The pink flamingos that gather in the nearby salt flats complete a landscape that at certain times of the year is more reminiscent of Africa than Salento.

Where it is and what to expect

To enjoy Punta Prosciutto at its best in high season, it is worth arriving early in the morning, before 9, or late in the afternoon at sunset, when the crowds thin out and the colours of sea and sky are at their most evocative. In low season, from May or September, it is a completely different story: the beach is almost deserted, the sea still holds all its summer warmth, and you remember why some beaches are worth seeking out.

The tip for enjoying it at its best

The beauty of Porto Cesareo is above all its village, once made up predominantly of fishermen's houses and today a lively tourist hub full of small shops, craft workshops and historic fish markets where you can always find fresh fish directly from the fishermen's boats. Worth an evening stroll, a seafood dinner, and an ice cream before heading back.

Porto Cesareo, the nearby village

The strangest name, the most beautiful beach

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the city that has seen everything

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Otranto

Otranto

Otranto is the last city in Italy heading east. The point where the peninsula ends and the Mediterranean begins. This makes it different from all the other cities of Salento: more layered, heavier with history, more conscious of the weight of what it has been through. Otranto is one of the jewels of Salento, a gem set into the Adriatic coast of Puglia. This ancient village is a true treasure, with its narrow and winding streets, its historic buildings and the magnificent Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata.

The Cathedral of Otranto, a three-nave building with 14 granite columns surmounted by Romanesque capitals, is a monument of Pugliese Romanesque, consecrated in 1088. Inside is a masterpiece of medieval art: a mosaic floor from 1163–1165 depicting a magnificent Tree of Life. The cathedral also houses the relics of the Saints Martyrs of Otranto. The mosaic is one of the most extraordinary things to be seen in the South: a medieval encyclopaedia painted on the floor, with figures of animals, kings, prophets and fantastic creatures. It must be seen with calm, in silence, preferably early in the morning.

The Cathedral and the mosaic

The Aragonese Castle of Otranto was built in the fifteenth century to protect the city from Turkish attacks and has recently been restored. In Piazza Castello, the pentagonal Aragonese castle with three circular towers and three angular towers. Above the entrance is the imperial coat of arms of Charles V. From its bastions you can admire the port and the entire Otranto Channel. It is also the site of the exhibition on the Grotta dei Cervi at Porto Badisco.

The Aragonese Castle

Otranto carries with it the memory of 1480, when the Ottoman Turks besieged and took the city, executing 800 inhabitants who refused to renounce the Christian faith. Their remains are kept in the Cathedral. It is a story the city has not forgotten and that you can still feel in the air of its streets.

The Martyrs and the memory

Otranto is not only its old town. A few kilometres away you will find some of the most beautiful beaches on the Adriatic Salento: Baia dei Turchi, Torre dell'Orso, Porto Badisco. Crystal-clear sea, rocky seabeds, hidden coves.

The nearby beaches 

the city that has seen everything

the world beneath the sea here

[hotel_giardinodeipini] The caves of Salento

The caves of Salento

Salento is known for what can be seen on the surface: the sea, the stone, the trulli. But beneath, in the karst belly of this land, there is another world. A world of stalactites and stalagmites, of underground lakes, of filtered light that transforms the rocks into something that has no name. The caves of Salento are among the most extraordinary in Italy, and some among the most important in Europe.

the most beautiful one to visit

At the heart of the Otranto–Santa Maria di Leuca Natural Park, at Castro Marina in Puglia, the fascinating Grotta della Zinzulusa opens to visitors, recognised as one of the ten most important caves in the world. The Zinzulusa is a natural cave characterised by many stalactites, called in local dialect "zinzuli" (rags) because they resemble rags hung out to dry. Having moved in amazement through the Corridor of Wonders, also encountering an underground lake called the Trabocchetto, it is time to admire the Crypt, a cavern 25 metres high and rich in limestone columns. From here there is yet another reason for wonder: the small underground lake called Cocito, characterised by stratified crystal-clear waters – fresh water on top and brackish at the bottom — and by the presence of rare organisms. The visit takes about 30 minutes and can be accessed by sea or on foot from the small harbour at Castro Marina.

The Grotta della Zinzulusa

When the water is fresh

In Roca Vecchia, in the municipality of Melendugno, along the Adriatic coast of Salento, two karst caves can be found, carved into the limestone rock by the sea over time. The larger one is a natural pool open to the sky, where visitors dive and swim while the limestone walls filter the light in ways that are difficult to put into words. Its name does not come from poetry or verses: it derives from the ancient Greek word posìa, meaning “drink”, referring to a freshwater spring that once flowed inside the cave. The smaller cave, on the other hand, is not suitable for swimming and is not open to the public, but it holds something extraordinary: 600 square metres of engravings on its walls, one of the most important epigraphic monuments of the ancient Mediterranean, featuring prehistoric figures, Messapian inscriptions dating from the 6th to the 4th century BC, and a Greek-type alphabet that we still cannot fully decipher. Swimming in the Grotta Grande and knowing that, just a few metres away beyond a narrow passage, all of this lies hidden: this is Salento, a land that never ceases to amaze.

The Grotta della Poesia

the Palaeolithic at the surface of the rock

The Grotta Romanelli consists of a single wide space open and visible from the outside. Its fascination also derives from being a treasure chest of history: stone tools dating back to the Palaeolithic and fossils of extinct animals were found here. It is not accessible from inside, but its position on the Adriatic cliffside is already a spectacle in itself.

Grotta Romanelli

The Blue Cave is another pearl of the Adriatic, reachable only by sea. It is located at Castro, just metres from the Grotta della Zinzulusa. Its name refers to the colour that the water takes on due to the refraction of light on the rock wall.

The Blue Cave

the world beneath the sea here 

One of the best options is the boat trip that departs from the small harbour at Castro Marina, touching the Zinzulusa, the Romanelli, and then continuing toward Porto Miggiano, one of the most beautiful inlets in all of Salento for the shades of its sea. A way to see everything in one day, with the sea as your guide.

How to experience them at their best 

Salento before history

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Porto Badisco and the Grotta dei Cervi

Porto Badisco and the Grotta dei Cervi

There is a place in Salento where history truly begins from the very beginning. Not from the Middle Ages, not from the Romans, not from the Greeks. From the Neolithic. From when people could not yet write but painted on cave walls with bat guano and red ochre, leaving traces that no one has ever erased. About 6 km from Otranto lies Porto Badisco, a picture-postcard place where the rocky, wild coastline is kissed by a turquoise sea, with the typical Mediterranean scrub in the background. Here, where it was thought Aeneas had once landed, stands the Grotta dei Cervi, a true temple of prehistory.

The Grotta dei Cervi was discovered on 1 February 1970 by five members of the Gruppo Speleologico Salentino di Maglie and is the most impressive Neolithic pictorial complex in Europe. Initially it was given the name "Antro di Enea", because of the legend according to which Aeneas landed in Italy at Porto Badisco. The current name derives from subsequent discoveries of the pictograms.

The discovery

On the cave walls are depicted about 3,000 pictograms, from the smallest of about 2 cm to the largest of about 75 cm, concentrated in groups in around 60 panels on both walls of three galleries, for a total of 600 metres of passage. The pigments used are organic and mineral materials found on site: for the most part painted in black using subfossil bat guano, and in smaller numbers in red using ferruginous red ochre. The largest room shows black paintings depicting deer hunting, strange geometric figures and above all spirals, symbols of rebirth. The Grotta dei Cervi also has walls depicting what is called the Dancing Shaman, now a symbol of Salento also linked to the phenomenon of tarantism, and numerous handprints. They are rather small, left millennia ago almost certainly by children, and their meaning remains obscure to this day. National Geographic Italia described it as the "Sistine Chapel of the Neolithic", for the breadth and intensity of its pictorial cycle.

What is inside

The cave with the rock paintings is protected and not accessible to the public. The best way to experience it is to combine a visit to the bay, a coastal walk and the 3D content available at the Aragonese Castle of Otranto. The exhibition is designed to compensate for the impossibility of the public accessing the Grotta dei Cervi: the representation of the paintings and the 3D virtual tour bring the public closer to an important archaeological reality of Puglia and of Italy as a whole.

You cannot go inside. But you can understand.

The reason Porto Badisco is worth the trip is not only the cave. It is the bay itself: one of the attractions is the chance to eat fresh seafood, in particular sea urchins. Local restaurants offer seafood specialities made with fresh, local ingredients. A wild cove, clear water, and the air of the Adriatic Salento. And knowing that beneath your feet, just metres away, are drawings eight thousand years old.

The bay 

Salento before history

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Gallipoli

Gallipoli

The old town is a labyrinth of golden tufa suspended over the blue, where the scent of fish broth mingles with the salt air, Baroque churches compete in beauty with the sky, and the light changes colour every hour of the day. This is not a metaphor: it really happens. Early in the morning, when tourists are still sleeping, the narrow streets belong to the fishermen and the cats. At noon, the carparo stone warms and turns gold. At sunset, everything shifts to burnt orange and the city becomes a feeling.

An island within the city

The majestic Castello Angioino is one of the city's symbols, almost entirely surrounded by sea. It was originally built after 265 BC, probably damaged in the fifth century and then rebuilt in the Byzantine era. Today it houses the civic museum, but the reason to get close is the view: the bastions reflected in the water, the port in the background, the sensation of being somewhere that has withstood everything.

The castle that floats

The Church of the Purità, built in 1664, is an excellent example of the Baroque style typical of Gallipoli. Since Lecce stone was not available for construction, the Baroque architects had to express their creativity using carparo, a material notoriously more difficult to work with. The result is a church that seems carved by hand, with a roughness that makes it more real than perfect things. The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, at the highest point of the island, is the standout: an elaborate façade, an interior worth the journey on its own, and the moment of recognition when you understand why some cities build their most beautiful churches in the hardest places to reach. Beauty needs time to be admired.

The Baroque and the stone 

Even today in Gallipoli you can visit the hypogean oil mills, evocative underground structures now fallen out of use that were once used to store and press olives. Descending into the hypogean oil mill of Palazzo Granafei means understanding what Gallipoli was before tourism: a commercial, industrious city that exported lamp oil throughout Europe through that port which today you admire at sunset with an aperitivo in hand.

Underground, the oil 

Every day fishermen dock in the harbours, tipping their precious catch onto the pier. Visiting the fish market in Gallipoli is one of the experiences to have during a holiday in Salento. At sunset the quays of the ancient harbour fill with tourists and locals waiting for the fishermen's colourful fishing boats to return: it is the hour of aperitivos with the freshest seafood.

The fish market and the sunset 

The golden bastions rising from the water, the majolica domes emerging between the rooftops, the city's silhouette against the sunset: everything takes on a different dimension. Gallipoli from a boat is another city. The excursion is worth it, the cost is worth it, getting up early is worth it.

From the sea, it is another city

The beautiful city

Giardino dei Pini is about 20 km from Gallipoli, around twenty minutes' drive through the most authentic Salento. Close enough to make it a day trip, busy enough to make you glad to return somewhere quiet.

Getting to Gallipoli from Giardino dei Pini 

There is a bridge in Gallipoli. Short, in stone, from the seventeenth century. You cross it in thirty seconds and the perspective shifts. On one side, the modern city with bars, cars, the noise of daily life. On the other, a limestone island suspended above the Ionian Sea where time has decided not to rush. The name says it all: in Greek, Kallípolis simply means "the beautiful city". And it is not an exaggerated promise.

the Salento that dances and does not forget

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Galatina

Galatina

It was one of the first cities in Italy to have stone-paved streets, still almost entirely intact today, giving the sensation that time here has stood still. Walking through the old town of Galatina means passing through layers of centuries that did not bother to make themselves presentable for tourism. And that is exactly why it works.

Galatina is one of the most interesting stops to make in Salento if you are looking for a place with character, history and an authentic city life, without the more touristic imprint of the seaside resorts. It is the kind of place that does not make it onto the glossy front pages of travel guides. Which is precisely the reason to go

the Gothic no one expects

The Basilica of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria is the most representative monument of the town and above all of its history. It owes its current appearance to the presence of Franciscan inquisitor monks here, installed by Raimondello Orsini del Balzo, the local lord. The interior of the church is a marvel of International Gothic that recalls, in some ways, the upper basilica of Assisi, through whose study much becomes clear about both the history of Galatina and the arrival of the Roman Catholic rite. It is one of those places where you walk in expecting one thing and find something completely different.

The Basilica of Santa Caterina:

not folklore, but history

Here, more than anywhere else in Salento, the memory of tarantism has remained alive: the complex system of beliefs, music, dance and popular devotion associated with the figure of Saint Paul and the symbolic bite of the tarantula. Today this world should not be read as mere postcard folklore. It is part of the cultural identity of the city and you can still sense it walking through the Chapel of San Paolo, Piazza San Pietro and the streets of the centre. Legend has it that Saint Paul, landing in Salento and arriving in Galatina, was hosted by three sisters, to whom in exchange for their hospitality he gave the power to heal from the bite of venomous animals. Now elderly, the last of the three sisters, so as not to disperse this power, spat into the water of a well. From that well, still present today in the small Chapel of San Paolo, the entire history of Salentine tarantism unfolds. The liberation ritual from the spider's bite began in the homes of the unfortunate women, where, to the relentless beat of tambourines, they let themselves go in a frenzied and convulsive dance. It was medicine, it was theatre, it was exorcism. It was the way a community processed pain, malaise and social marginality through music and the body. The Municipality of Galatina has embarked on an articulate journey to obtain recognition of tarantism as an intangible cultural heritage protected by UNESCO. A recognition that would come as no surprise: few cultural phenomena of the South are so layered, so deeply rooted, so capable of crossing the centuries and landing in the present without losing their force.

Tarantism:

yes, it was born here

A stop at Pasticceria Ascalone to taste the original pasticciotto is not to be missed. This historic Salentine pastry is made and sold throughout Salento, but it was invented in this very pastry shop. Here you can taste the pasticciotto made with the original recipe, handed down from generation to generation. This detail is worth the trip on its own. Eating a pasticciotto in Galatina, in the pastry shop where it was born, is the kind of experience that The Begin would call luxury. The real kind.

The pasticciotto:

Walking through the old town of Galatina means passing through layers of centuries that did not bother to make themselves presentable for tourism. And that is exactly why it works. 

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Galatina is one of the most interesting stops to make in Salento if you are looking for a place with character, history and an authentic city life, without the more touristic imprint of the seaside resorts. It is the kind of place that does not make it onto the glossy front pages of travel guides. Which is precisely the reason to go. It was one of the first cities in Italy to have stone-paved streets, still almost entirely intact today, giving the sensation that time here has stood still. Walking through the old town of Galatina means passing through layers of centuries that did not bother to make themselves presentable for tourism. And that is exactly why it works.

when Baroque becomes a language

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Lecce

Lecce

Known as "the Florence of the South", Lecce surprises, fascinates and wins you over with the archaeological remains of Roman domination and the exuberance of its seventeenth-century Baroque, here known as "Lecce Baroque", a unique expression of a popular language with Mediterranean roots. The comparison with Florence is slightly imprecise, as all comparisons between cities that do not really resemble each other tend to be. Lecce is warmer, more sun-drenched, more inclined toward excessive decoration that, strangely, never tires. Perhaps because it is built from Lecce stone, a material so soft and luminous that even the most redundant ornament looks light.

There are cities that reveal their beauty all at once. Not Lecce. Lecce distributes it through the alleyways, hides it around corners, lets it explode where you least expect it. Then you walk and you understand: this is not a city with Baroque monuments. It is a city that is Baroque in its soul, in its stone, in the way the afternoon light falls on the façades and turns them into something that has no equivalent anywhere else.

The Basilica of Santa Croce is the most significant example of Lecce Baroque, with façade decorations so lavish they leave you breathless. This is the point where Salentine Baroque stops being a style and becomes a declaration of intent. The central rose window is a vortex of friezes, but then your eyes move inevitably to the statue of Sant'Oronzo at the top, which seems to watch over the entire square. The interior, in a Latin cross plan, is more restrained but no less fascinating: the twisted columns of the high altar are a masterpiece of balance, and the light filtering through the windows creates evocative plays on the polychrome marbles. At sunset, the façade lights up with warm reflections that seem to come from within the stone itself.

The Basilica of Santa Croce:

the city's finest stage

Arriving at the famous Piazza del Duomo, you immediately notice the sumptuous façade of the Cathedral and the Campanile rising 70 metres, the leading representatives of Lecce Baroque, alongside the Palazzo del Vescovado and the Palazzo del Seminario, now home to the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art. It is a square enclosed on three sides, almost an outdoor auditorium, with a theatricality that seems to have been planned to the last detail. It probably was. In the seventeenth century, Lecce knew perfectly well what it was doing.

Piazza del Duomo:

Walking through the centre of Lecce, among Baroque façades that look like lacework in stone, you come across something unexpected: a Roman amphitheater rising from underground, right in Piazza Sant'Oronzo. It is the kind of thing that makes you stop dead. The monumental structure, buried under rubble until 1901 and brought to light during excavations for the foundations of the Banca d'Italia building, is estimated to have held between 15,000 and 20,000 spectators. Lecce, in short, is not only Baroque. It is layered, it is ancient, it is the kind of city that reveals something new every time you dig.

The Roman amphitheatre in the middle of the city

Near Piazza Sant'Oronzo stands the Castle of Lecce, also known as the Castle of Charles V. In 1539 the king transformed the medieval stronghold into a full military fortress, capable of withstanding the fierce attacks of the Turks. Inside, alongside temporary exhibition spaces, you can visit the Chapel of Santa Barbara and the underground passage of the prisons, which offers a chill of darker history. After so much decorative exuberance, it is the stop that brings you back down to earth.

The Castle of Charles V

Along the pedestrian streets of the old town, numerous workshops for working Lecce stone follow one after another: a craft still alive thanks to the practical ingenuity and creativity of the master stonemasons. It is worth stopping to watch. It is worth understanding that what you see on the church façades was not printed – it was carved by someone's hands, one piece at a time, for months.

The crafts of stone

The must-see stops in Lecce

There are cities that reveal their beauty all at once. Not Lecce. Lecce distributes it through the alleyways, hides it around corners, lets it explode where you least expect it. Then you walk and you understand: this is not a city with Baroque monuments. It is a city that is Baroque in its soul, in its stone, in the way the afternoon light falls on the façades and turns them into something that has no equivalent anywhere else

the name is a promise, and it is kept

[hotel_giardinodeipini] The Maldives of Salento:

The Maldives of Salento

Someone, at some point, looked at the sea of Pescoluse and thought of the Maldives. It might seem like a marketing comparison, one of those exaggerations typical of tourist communications. It is not. A shoreline of fine, golden sand that blends with the turquoise and crystal-clear Ionian Sea, with shallow depths, awarded the Blue Flag and three Sails by Legambiente. The water is that shade of turquoise you expect from the Caribbean, not from Italy. And yet it is here, a few kilometres from Giardino dei Pini.

The Maldives of Salento are located along the Ionian coast of Puglia, between Posto Vecchio and Torre Pali, in the marine area of Pescoluse, municipality of Salve. The name came from a beach club, opened in 2000 as "Le Maldive" and renamed "Maldive del Salento" in 2008. Over time, the name expanded to identify an entire stretch of coastline that includes Pescoluse, Torre Pali, Torre Vado, Lido Marini and Torre Mozza.

Where exactly they are

The beach stretches for about 4 kilometres, offering an expanse of fine white sand bathed by crystal-clear waters that slope gently. The surrounding natural landscape, characterised by sand dunes covered in Mediterranean vegetation, contributes to creating a unique atmosphere. On windless days, the sea is so calm you can clearly see the sandy seabed even several metres from the shore. If you want zero crowds, simply move a few hundred metres away from the most frequented spots: free beach exists, it is just as beautiful, and early in the morning it is almost deserted.

The beach

The advice is low season or early morning in August. The Mediterranean scrub is the ideal habitat for many animal species, including sea turtles, and in September the sea retains all its summer temperature while the beach rediscovers its most precious quality: silence.

When to go

Torre Pali is a lively village with a long beach; Pescoluse is the heart of the Maldives of Salento; Torre Vado is a characteristic village with a small harbour and a family-friendly beach. From Giardino dei Pini it is 15 minutes by car: close enough to go every morning, easily.

Getting there from Giardino dei Pini 

The name is a promise, and it is kept

The Maldives of Salento:

the red lake you did not expect

[hotel_giardinodeipini] The Otranto Bauxite Quarry

The Otranto Bauxite Quarry

There are places that look like they come from another planet. The Otranto Bauxite Quarry is one of them. The picturesque landscape is characterised by an emerald-green lake surrounded by irregular hills in shades of red and dense Mediterranean scrub, from which intoxicating scents of herbs and aromatic plants arise. Red and green, earth and water, industry and nature taking back what was hers.

It all begins with the discovery in the 1940s of this bauxite deposit, extracted and sent to the plants at Porto Marghera, where it was used to produce aluminium. It worked until 1976, when the site was abandoned due to high costs and water seeping in from an aquifer discovered while digging too deep. Time and the force of nature allowed the quarry to transform into an emerald-green lake, over which an intensely red landscape looks out.

The history of the quarry

A lakeside ecosystem where the green of the brackish water meets the vegetation, while the red of the bauxite fuses with the blue of the sky. Visiting the Otranto Bauxite Quarry is like taking a journey through an almost Martian landscape. Once there, the first thing that strikes you is the strong contrast between the red earth and the bright green of the small lake at the centre of the quarry. Around the lake you can observe herons, little egrets, falcons and blackbirds. Among the plants that have grown spontaneously, lizards, frogs and toads hide. In spring and summer, butterflies, bees and dragonflies fill the air with movement and colour.

The colour 

Be careful not to wear white: the red of the quarry sticks to everything. A practical tip that says everything about the physicality of this place.

One important word of warning 

The Red Lake of Otranto

when dance is medicine, seduction and identity

[hotel_giardinodeipini] La Taranta

La Taranta

There is a dance in Salento that you cannot watch with detachment. It gets inside you before you notice, through the tambourine, through the feet beating on the floor, through that look between the two dancers who draw close and pull away in a courtship that never ends. The Salentine pizzica is a joyful, overwhelming and involving dance, one that is hard to resist. On one side energetic, frenetic, fast and elusive, on the other slowed down, composed and imperceptible, before picking up again at an even more relentless pace.

between Dionysus and the tarantula

The pizzica has very ancient origins dating back to Dionysian cults common in the Salento area, arriving from Greece and adopted by local populations. The word "Pizzica" appeared for the first time in a document from 1797, during the Bourbon era, in reference to a nocturnal dance organised by the nobility of the city of Taranto in honour of King Ferdinand IV. But its roots are far deeper than that court document. The pizzica was born as music to accompany the choreographic rites aimed at exorcising tarantism, a form of hysteria that struck women working in the fields and believed to have been bitten by tarantulas or scorpions. According to the popular beliefs of the time, when the unfortunate farm women were bitten by the "taranta", they became possessed by its powerful venom. To free themselves from the venom, the "pizzicated" could dance for days or even weeks at an ever-accelerating pace. It was therapy, it was theatre, it was the way a community processed collective pain through body and music. Born in Galatina, it spread throughout Salento as a common language of a people.

The origins:

Tra tamburelli e fazzoletti

The pizzica is a courtship dance in which two dancers draw close but never touch. The woman leads the dance, using small retreats, flashes, sudden stops and restarts to entice the man to follow. Of central importance is the handkerchief the woman waves as a gesture of elegant provocation, which however cannot be taken by the man without the beloved's consent. The couple's dance is sustained by the "ronda", a circle made up of dancers, musicians and spectators: the circle represents perfection and the external energy that pours into the couple.

How it is danced 

La Notte della Taranta e la Notte di San Rocco

The most celebrated event is La Notte della Taranta, in Melpignano, which takes place at the end of August to close the summer season in style, with various travelling stops along the way. Another event not to miss is the festival of the "Notte di San Rocco", in Torrepaduli, where on the evening of 15 August thousands of people gather to take part in the Salentine pizzica and the dance of the swords. But in truth, in Salento in summer, all it takes is a local village fair, any square, a tambourine that starts to play.

Where to see it 

when dance is medicine, seduction and identity

It is a strong land, one of those that cannot be described in pastel colours. Almost wild. And yet its elegance is surprising.

[hotel_giardinodeipini] Experiences & surroundings 

Esperienze e dintorni

Erlebnisse & Umgebung

Expériences et alentours

A land kissed by the sea: over 250 km of coastline and two seas that meet, each with its own character and nuances. A land kissed by Nature: coves and caves where you can find your own corner of paradise. A land kissed by Culture and the richness of its traditions: a history thousands of years old, witnessed by the cave paintings near Otranto, which then gives way to the wonder of Lecce's Baroque, declared a UNESCO world heritage site. Because Salento is truly a land kissed by Beauty. In every one of its shades.

HotelExperienceIndex

Experiences & surroundings 

[corporate] Salento

DestinationIntro

Salento

A Collection of Boutique Hotels with different personalities. Enchanting worlds in Italian destinations to experience slowly.

Experiences& surroundings