DANCE TO THE RHYTHMS OF THE SOUTH

Meet your private guide and driver at your accommodation in Lecce and set off to enjoy a full-day tour of three Apulian towns.

You begin your day with a tour of the popular seaside resort of Gallipoli. This “beautiful city”, as the town was known in ancient Greek times, certainly lives up to its name. Its fabulous setting along the western coast of Salento, fringed by long sandy beaches and the limpid waters of the Ionian Sea, has long attracted holidaymakers to the town. Gallipoli’s historic centre sits entirely on an island, connected to the mainland by a bridge. Fortified walls, built to ward off attacks in the Middle Ages, and the imposing sea-front castle still stand as reminders of the olden days of marauding pirates. The town is punctuated with several noble palazzi and Baroque churches, attesting to the wealth and prestige enjoyed by this once thriving trading and maritime centre. Your guide will lead you across Gallipoli’s maze of winding streets and make sure you do not miss its highlights: the Basilica of Sant’Agata, with its fanciful facade, the small Church of the Purità, home to a precious painting by Luca Giordano, and the lively port where fishermen unload their haul or mend their nets aboard their colourful boats.

A 20-minute drive will bring you to pretty Nardò. The town’s roots go back to the 7th century BC when the ancient Messapi tribe first settled on this site. Despite a thousand-year-old history, little remains of the town’s rich past before the 18th century when, following an earthquake, Nardò was rebuilt in ornate Baroque style. The centrepiece is undoubtedly Piazza Salandra, surrounded by gracious buildings and home to the 19-metre-high Immacolata spire, erected in 1769 as a tribute to the Virgin Mary for having protected Nardo’s inhabitants from the seism. Your guide will show you around the town and point out its main attractions, including the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, housing frescoes dating to the Middle Ages and a 12th century wooden Crucifix, the elaborate facade of the Church of San Domenico and the Acquaviva Castle, named after the lords who governed the town from 1497 to 1806.

After a leisurely stroll and some free time for lunch rejoin your driver and reach the last stop on your tour. Three stone city gates welcome visitors to Galatina whose remarkably well-preserved centro storico boasts elegant 17th and 18th century buildings. Intricately decorated doorways, balconies and church portals will strike you as you make your way through the old centre on a quest for its most noteworthy features. Art lovers ought to take a peek inside the 14th century Basilica of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, a rare example of Apulia’s Romanesque-Gothic architecture. The splendid frescoes that grace its walls represent Scenes from Genesis, the Apocalypse and the Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and have earned Galatina the nickname of “The Assisi of Apulia”.

The town is especially famous for the tarantella, a folk dance featuring fast and feverish movements whose origins date way back in time. From the 15th century up until not so long ago Galatina was a pilgrimage centre for tarantate, women who were possessed by Apulia’s mythical spider. Victims believed that only by participating in a frenetic ritual dance and drinking miraculous water from a well (which has now been walled up) near the Chapel of Saint Paul in Galatina could they be cured of the effects of poisonous tarantula bites.

Before returning to your accommodation in Lecce don’t forget to pay a visit to the historical Pasticceria Ascalone. It is here that the renowned pasticciotto, a delicious pastry filled with egg custard, was first invented in 1745.