Between water and earth dunes

Finding yourself in Salento in the spring, strolling immersed in captivating landscapes and taking in every small fragment of history, culture but also the folklore and traditions that characterize these places. This is what SalentoVirtuale.com offers with the itinerary “Between dunes of water and land”, a path that goes from the hills to the countryside to the sea, able to make you fall in love with this exemplary “glimpse” of Salento. The journey begins at Cutrofiano (about 27 km from Lecce), where the Municipal Museum of Ceramics is located, in the old municipal seat in Piazza Municipio. The Museum holds about 600 traditional objects, mostly produced in the past by local artisans, divided according to their intended uses. From Cutrofiano, a few kilometers we reach Collepasso, admiring the Clock Tower and the Baronial Palace, commonly called “castle” by the locals. And then again in Casarano, more precisely in Casaranello, to visit the Church of S. Maria della Croce which jealously guards early Christian mosaics dating back to the fifth century. These mosaics cover the dome and the vault of the presbytery, giving the gaze a pleasant play of lights and colors in harmony that follow one another on the other. From Casarano to Matino, with a stop at the Palazzo del Marte del Tufo: interesting is its façade with the “Trifora Balustrata”, the frescoed walls of the stable and the characteristic mangers that appear as niches with the names of the horses that once they were drinking. Immediately after Matino we meet Parabita, with its Sanctuary of the Madonna della Coltura; and then again Alezio, with the Museo civico messapico; and down until you arrive in Gallipoli (from the Greek “Kalé Polis” = beautiful city). Places to visit in this town there are plenty of them: the Historical Center, alone, is a destination of hundreds and hundreds tourists attracted by the typical labyrinth streets, art found in churches, palaces: in short, a real “Pearl” to be discovered in all its splendor. And if, perhaps, your “extra-large holiday” also includes the week before Easter, you can not fail to enjoy the different costumes of the Sacred Rites related to this holiday: starting with the procession of Our Lady of Sorrows on Friday that precedes the Palms, at the long procession of the Holy Friday. The latter ends at night when, precisely, another procession comes out that culminates in the moving “meeting” between the Madonna and Jesus who died on the morning of Holy Saturday in the square adjacent to the church of Purity … Really exciting, not found? We therefore expect you, in the spring, to enjoy this Salento that unfolds “between dunes of water and land”.