The palette of blue

We arrive in Lecce by train in the late afternoon. Car rental: Europcar has its office on the outskirts, they don't bring the car to the station as promised, so we have to take a taxi to reach their location. We've rented a Matiz which for 2 people without luggage is perfectly fine for driving along the roads of Salento. About 200 euros for 10 days of rental. Important note: don't underestimate the distances of the places to visit, especially take into account the number of towns you have to cross to reach them! To get past them you lose dozens of minutes continuously zigzagging along secondary roads following the signs... as long as there are any! And then stop signs are everywhere, forcing you to stop and yield even to private alleys that intersect the provincial road you're driving on! You need a good dose of patience. Accommodation in the B&B

The wind decides whether to head toward the Ionian (sheltered from the north wind) or the Adriatic (favorable when there's a sirocco). The Ionian wins: off to Torre Sant'Isidoro-Torre Squillace, just south of Porto San Cesareo. In August it's quite a mob, but you can still find a little spot among the rocks to lie down. Beautiful sea, but it suffers from the crowding, not very clear. We spend the afternoon at Porto Selvaggio, a protected area a bit further south, reached by a path that descends to the sea through a wonderful forest. Remarkable sea, rich in fish. Worth noting the place "Al fico d'India," right where you take the path, very sui generis, populated by peculiar characters. Evening at the restaurant "Li panzanari," in Muro Leccese. A place where you "endure" dinner! Dishes arrive at every moment from every side of the table, without you being able to utter a word.

The food is in fact too good (especially the vegetable-based appetizers!) and the pace frantic! Even looking at the bill leaves you speechless: 17 euros for such a mountain of food!

We head toward the Ionian, but a bit further south, toward the beaches of Pesculuse, the "Maldives" of Salento, not far from Leuca. We choose the access furthest from the town, you pay 2 euros for guarded car parking, but then the beach is free. Definitely more accessible than Torre Sant'Isidoro, though equally crowded; the sea is transparent yes, but a bit rough so that day the "Maldives" label seems a bit exaggerated. It's worth it in any case, also for the dunes covered in lilies behind the beach. In these first days I'm positively struck by the cleanliness of the beaches of Salento, so far I've found nothing comparable in Italy. Evening spent in Casarano listening to Mercanti di Liquore with Marco Paolini: thrilling! Thousands of people following monologues and songs that tell of realities that are ultimately distant: the resistance, polenta, the Venetian language.

Paolini himself is moved, he feels he has touched the heart of many Salentini, it's palpable, as well as having entertained them with some of his hilarious anecdotes.

We stick with the Ionian and with the beaches, this time heading north, to the border with the province of Taranto. The whole coast north of Porto Cesareo, from Torre Lapillo to Punta Prosciutto, is a nature reserve and immediately strikes you with the beauty of the beach and dunes and the color of the sea. We stop at Punta Prosciutto, where the beach is free and a delightful bar by the sea lets you enjoy a wonderful view with the sea breeze delighting us. A paradise! Definitely the most beautiful beach seen during the vacation, recommended to anyone. In the evening we visited Lecce, which in recent years has become a true little gem: renovated and cleaned-up historic center, with the Lecce stone gleaming in its ochre color thanks to careful lighting. The cathedral, Piazza Sant'Oronzo and the church of Santa Croce deserve a stop. Careful: parking in Lecce is a problem!!!

The wind changes, we test the Adriatic. Anna, who hosts us at the B&B, suggests we go to Sant'Andrea. Priceless suggestion! In mid-August Sant'Andrea isn't all that crowded and most people concentrate on the small beach on the right, while by parking on the left side of the town you reach the rocky shore and from there you easily descend almost to sea level. On these flat rocks you can sunbathe quite comfortably and, with a little dive from a height of 2 meters or so, set off to explore the sea stacks that surround the bay, right in the middle of a crystal-clear sea! Caves, coves: snorkeling in this place is a joy, you never find the courage to turn around and go back! In the evening we dine at Antica Dispensa in Cutrofiano. We are "introduced" to this palate-delight of a place by our hosts, who strongly recommend it.

From outside it looks like a shop where you buy takeaway food but, if you book in advance, 2-3 tables upstairs are ready to welcome customers. It feels like going to someone's home, to go up the stairs you pass through the kitchens, the tables are "rustic," a sheet of paper on top and off you go. But the food... genuine to the core! Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes in oil, orecchiette, meatballs... super generous portions. Not the price, 10 euros!!! We tried to go back, there was no room because of a baptism: but where did they put all the guests??? After dinner in Otranto, which is truly delightful.

Cloudy morning, in the afternoon we head toward the Alimini lakes, just above Otranto. The parking lot is a mud pit, the sea rough, but the environment overall is very pleasant, especially for the conifer forest and Mediterranean scrub that surrounds and protects the coast.

Evening spent in Cannole, at the legendary sagra della Municedda! It's an unmissable festival, in fact beyond the gastronomic side (you can taste the municedde, that is, land snails, and many other delicacies like pieces of horse meat, pittole, artisanal focaccia with anchovies), Salento pizzica groups perform such as Tammuria and the legendary Lu rusciu nosciu! They go on for hours and hours playing the obsessive rhythms of the pizzica until late at night and it's a pleasure to see the Salento girls perform all the steps of this dance! People of every age dance and even tourists are so caught up that they dare a few moves: wonderful evenings of collective joy!

A beautiful sunny day with calm wind pushes us to Roca, on the Adriatic. The place is a paradise for divers: natural diving boards everywhere among the ruins of the city of the Messapi. There's even a sort of natural amphitheater where you can dive from about 6 meters with all the people around and below, in the water, ready to give you courage to take the fateful step into the void! The local swimmers perform from a height of 10 and more meters with headfirst dives, including somersaults. Evening at the opening of the Notte della Taranta in Corigliano. The Notte della Taranta in fact doesn't consist only of the legendary evening in Melpignano, where tens of thousands of people gather to dance all night, but lasts about 15 days with various stops in the villages of Grecìa Salentina, where 2-3 folk groups from the various Italian regions perform, with a local pizzica group always present.

Corigliano struck us: we passed through it often during the day and it seemed a deserted town, abandoned. That evening we discovered that it also has a wonderful castle and that it's extremely lively! So the towns of the Salento interior, which by day seem to doze, at night transform themselves becoming the beating heart of the area.

We stick with the Adriatic, visiting the whole coast south of Otranto down to Leuca. There's an embarrassment of choice for coves where you can lie down to sunbathe and take a swim. We stop near Castro. We don't visit the Zinzulusa cave, so highly publicized: those who went told us it's money thrown away, marine caves along the Adriatic coast are found in abundance, easily visitable by swimming while snorkeling. Worth noting is the Ciolo cave, a sort of fjord between Marina di Tricase and Leuca, a bridge from the road that crosses it, you often see daring divers trying the thrill of a flight from a height of 40 meters, the waters are crystal clear and there's even a freshwater spring. We spend the evening in Cutrofiano, because there's the legendary sagra dell'olio e del vino, organized by the town's cooperative winery.

Until a few years ago everything was free, now only the wine and oil (as if that were nothing!), while for first courses, second courses and sides you have to fork out the substantial sum of 1.5 euros! To taste the panino with anchovies and strong ricotta (a bomb), the orecchiette with tomato and vegetables, and the spumone, the Salento gelato.

The weather isn't great, but we feel like going back to Punta Prosciutto. Before doing that, though, we visit Porto Cesareo, a delightful little town with the Isola dei Conigli in front, reachable even on foot, because along a certain route the water never exceeds a meter thirty in depth... beware though of making a mistake when fording the sea, in other spots the bottom is deeper! The island is home to numerous native plant species. Unmissable in town is the statue of Manuela Arcuri! On the way back we pass through Galatina and the bad weather casually makes us enter the church of Santa Caterina. Well, put it on your list of monuments to visit: it's a late-medieval church with a wonderful façade, but the interior, if possible, leaves you even more open-mouthed.

Completely frescoed (second only to the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi for frescoed surface area) and in excellent condition, the fresco cycles evoke scenes from the Apocalypse and the apocryphal gospels, personally I've seen something similar only in the baptistery of Padua, but this church is at least at the same level. Some volunteers are available to illustrate the works present. Last evening in Puglia and how could we give up the Notte della Taranta, scheduled in Castrignano? Yet another sea of people and recharge of energy!

Splendid day, impossible to resist one last swim. We opt to return to Sant'Andrea which we liked very much and is almost on the way back to Lecce. Fantastic and calm sea, though some jellyfish don't let us explore the seabed in complete tranquility. In the evening the train in Lecce is ready to take us home loaded with Primitivo di Manduria and with many fine memories of this warm, organized, clean and vital corner of the south.