From Maglie to Gallipoli

It’s spring. Salento begins to sprout with flavors, smells, colors that give timeless emotions. It shines beneath the warm rays of the sun in the silent plain that seems to meditate in the thousand-year-old universe of its history. A journey in Salento this season means to immerse yourself in an atmosphere full of charisma, full of charm that captures souls in the deep subjugating them in the magic of its territories. Far from the suffocating heat of summer you can enjoy long walks to discover monuments, churches, museums but also wonderful natural scenery that unfold before our eyes moving, perhaps, from one country to another … Then SalentoVirtuale.com wants to propose a sketch of itinerary that you will then manage to manage in the ways and times of your stay in our territory. So let’s start from Maglie, a thriving town in the Salento hinterland (28 km from Lecce). Worthy of note here is the Cathedral dedicated to St. Nicholas (patron celebrated on May 9 with a fair in the village) and dating back to the eighteenth century. Think about it, inside there are eleven altars, some of exquisite workmanship, but its strong point is the adjacent bell tower, majestic and imposing in its 52 meters of height. Further on is the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie, baroque above all, in front of which stands the Votive Column, in Lecce stone, which bears the statue of the homonymous Madonna. Next to her, however, on the corners, there are also the 4 protectors of Maglie, the Saints Leonardo, S. Antonio da Padova, S. Nicola and S. Oronzo. For the more passionate, then, we point out the Museum of Paleontology and Paletnology “E. Stasi “, in which fossils and lytic finds are found in the most important caves of the lower Salento and in the surrounding quarries. We talked about the S. Nicola Fair: the latter also takes place in Aradeo, another small town in the province of Lecce. But, before you get there, you can always stop at Cutrofiano to give a “sneak peek” at the Municipal Museum of Ceramics, located in the former municipal seat. And then to Tuglie, to enrich our knowledge on the “roots” of Salento with a visit to the Museum of Rural Civilization and Popular Traditions. And again in Parabita, with its Sanctuary of the Madonna della Coltura: the Madonna who “wanted” to be in the middle of the fields, in the belief of the place. From Parabita to Matino the pace is short: the two countries are actually attacked. The Marchesale dei Del Tufo Palace, with its “Trifora Balustrata”, the stables with frescoed walls, and the mangers as “niches” with the names of the horses that once used to water there. From Matino we move to Taviano, more precisely on the straight that leads to Gallipoli, for a brief stop in the Church of St. Peter of Samaria: it was erected in the thirteenth century in the place where, according to popular belief, the Apostle would have landed. And then again we move to Alezio, to discover its Messapian origins by visiting the rich Messapian Civic Museum, in fact, of objects and various exhibits, witnesses of the presence of the ancient people the lyric in the small town. Finally, from Alezio we reach Gallipoli, the “pearl” among the many jewels of Salento. From the Greek “Kalé Polis” (= beautiful city), it is an indispensable goal even in the spring season. With its evocative sunsets on the mirror of the water; with its “alleys” that wind in the historic center making you always find the “wall”, the walls of the ancient village (by many also called “pan turn” because of its circular shape). With its monuments, its churches, its “treasures” to be discovered … In short, a real treasure trove of this Salento, do not you find? So reach us without delay and let yourself be enchanted by these places full of history and ultramillenarian charm.