Salento, magic and mystery

• Experience Hours: Full day – 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Lunch break) 3:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m;
• Price: 1 to 10 participants: €215.00; 10 to 25 participants: €265.00 for full day.

Three full days discovering the magic and mystery of Salento! We will travel to discover places and monuments, their most hidden meanings through rituals and legends.

Day 1: The experience starts by discovering the millennial history of Lecce, where we will discover the hidden symbols of churches’ architecture; learn about the link between the cult of the sun and mother earth and the “Luce di Cristo”. Then we will take a walk in the Historic Center where we can admire its monumental entrances, beautiful Baroque palaces and vestige of Roman times.

After this stop we will head to Gallipoli, a place of beauty and Emporium of Europe for about two centuries. A city that has seen numerous transits and trades.

Day 2: The second day will be dedicated to Salento’s Grecìa, core of Byzantine culture in Terra d’Otranto. With a first stop in Calimera, where we will practice the ancient rite of the pierced stone, herald of fertility and abundance.

From there we will move to Soleto. We will explore the historic centre and its many facets: the spire of Raimondello, a sign of the power of the greatest feudal lord of southern Italy at the end of the 1300s; the legendary figure of Matteo Tafuri, a scientist accused of witchcraft; and the church of Santo Stefano, a treasure chest that acts as a bridge between East and West.

As a last stop we’ll visit the nearby Galatina. We will discover by the beauty of the Basilica of St. Catherine of Alexandria, an unmatched symbol of Romanesque and Gothic art in the area. Its pictorial cycles are comparable in Italy only to those of the Basilica di San Francesco d’Assisi. After visiting the church with its cloister and small Museo del Tesoro, we will explore the historic center to discover headless knights and tarantism.

Dat 3: On the third day the focus will be on Eastern Salento.

The morning will be spent between Minervino and Giurdignano, a town that guards the richest megalithic garden in Italy, due to the quantity of Menhir and dolmen in its territory.

We will walk through the centuries, discovering evidence of the ancestors who populated these lands. We’ll discover the crypt of San Salvatore from the Byzantine era, which also bears witness to the traces of ancient peoples. The afternoon will be dedicated to Otranto, the Gateway to the East, the easternmost city in Italy. We will tell its compelling story, with the testimony of faith of its “Santi Martiri”. We will read the highly symbolic path of fall and salvation depicted on the Cathedral’s marvellous medieval mosaic and walk through alleys and ramparts to reenact stories of assaults and knights.