Discovering the hidden salento

The Cipollian Path

Our journey to discover the unusual Salento starts from the Cipolliane Trail, which winds between the Ciolo Canal and the Porto Vecchio of Marina di Novaglie.

Two and a half kilometers of beauty where at every step we encounter small treasure troves of rare plants and breathtaking panoramic views. All around, the smells of the Mediterranean maquis are released into the air enveloping the rural landscape dotted with prickly pears, dry stone walls and sporadic pajare. Along the way you can see the Cipollian Caves, mute and timeless, shaped over the centuries by the continuous erosive activity of the sea and winds.

If you would like to experience your journey through this picturesque landscape, we suggest you book a vacation home in Santa Maria di Leuca and start from here on one of the most typical paths in the area.

The Bauxite Quarry

A small emerald green gem hidden among the fiery red rocks: the Bauxite Quarry in Otranto is another unusual wonder you can discover during a trip to Salento.

From being an active bauxite mining site until the mid-1970s, it has now become an incredible scenic set for photo memories all to be framed. The emerald green color of the pond created in the crater of the quarry is given by the infiltration of water into one of the strata of the karst terrain. The whole surrounding area looks like a play of color shades ranging from the red of the bauxite to the green of the lake and surrounding vegetation.

Anideal solution to stay within walking distance of this precious natural beauty that characterizes the Salento is to choose a vacation home in Otranto.

The quarry can be reached by car by driving along the road that leads from the city to Santa Cesarea, until you turn right and enter a country road. After that you are forced to abandon the car because it is no longer possible to reach the quarry by car.

The ghost town of Monteruga in Lecce

Another absolutely not-to-be-missed gem among the hidden places of Salento is Monteruga, a ghost town, eerie and fascinating at the same time.

If in the 1950s the little village of Monteruga looked cozy with about 800 inhabitants who produced everything they needed for their subsistence, today it is the emblem of desolation. An almost ghostly place, abandoned to itself but that does not cease to exert a certain charm through its ruins and dilapidated buildings. Welcoming visitors is only silence, plunged there suddenly to cover the games and laughter that once populated the small hamlet.

Vincent's Hermitage: the house museum overlooking the artist's 'interiority.

Not far away, in the small village of Guagnano, there's a place that seems to come straight out of a fairy tale. Not too far from Lecce, the house-museum of Vicent Brunetti (or Vincent City) is an artistic experiment that is a must-see

A place of peace and psychic relaxation, Vincent's Hermitage is a work of art capable of reflecting the artist's inner world. High colorful walls covered with brilliant mosaics that catch the sun's rays and become even more dazzling. And more white statues, sacred icons, butterflies, emotional phrases that intersect, combine with the architecture becoming pure suggestion.

The specchie of Salento between archaeology and mystery

Living evidence of prehistory in Salento are the "specchie," tower-like manufacturing constructionsconsisting of large piles of stones of different shapes, up to ten meters high, developed on a conical shape with a circular base.

According to some paleontologists, the specchie represent ruins of ancient and gigantic dwellings, for others they have a tomb function. The most concrete hypothesis, is that they served as lookout posts to monitor the coast.

Specchie are visible all over the territory, from the Itria Valley to Salento and the Gargano. Everywhere they are celebrated by the mystery and legends that hover around them.

One example is the specchia of Martano-Caprarica, also known as the "Segla tu demoniu." An ancient legend says that this specchia hides inside it a treasure that is impossible to take because it is in the hands of the devil.

So that you do not miss any of these places of ritual and mystery located throughout the Salento area, you can opt to rent a vacation home in Lecce so that you can move comfortably in all directions.

The cemetery of Parabita as an expression of postmodern art

One of the most interesting monumental cemeteries in Italy is located in Salento, in the municipality of Parabita. Loaded with symbolic values, the cemetery appears as "unfinished architecture" in continuous evolution.

The first impression upon entering is that of being not in a cemetery, but in a theater. It appears as an agglomeration of geometric shapes and hidden corners dense with mystery and loaded with symbolic meanings. Conceived as a set of buildings related to each other through a unified design, it has the shape of a Corinthian capital on a grand scale in whose volutes the private chapels are inserted.

And after going through all the stages of this trip to the unusual Salento, it is time to dive into a nice regenerating bath in the clear and pure waters of the Ionian coast. By opting for a vacation home in Gallipoli you are just a stone's throw away from the area's liveliest tourist destinations and the most beautiful beaches of southern Salento.