Salento is the bottom of the boot's heel. Beaches rival the Caribbean. Baroque rivals Rome. Wine rivals Tuscany. Prices are half.
Build this itinerary →Lecce's Barocco Leccese: carved from soft pietra leccese. Basilica di Santa Croce: 150 years to complete, every centimeter carved. Piazza del Duomo: enclosed, almost private. Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Sant'Oronzo (2nd century, free view). Eat: pasticciotto (€1.50) at Pasticceria Natale. Rustico (€1.50) at Alle due Corti. Dinner: ciceri e tria (fried pasta with chickpeas, dish from ancient Rome still alive in Lecce).
Car essential. Day 3: Otranto (40 min): Cathedral floor mosaic (1163–65, free) — 600-sqm 12th-century Tree of Life with Alexander the Great, King Arthur, zodiac signs. Aragonese castle (€5). Porto Badisco beach: crystal water, legendary landing of Aeneas. Day 4: Gallipoli (40 min west): old town on an island. Ionian beaches south (Baia Verde, Punta della Suina): Caribbean sand. Santa Maria di Leuca: southernmost point of Puglia, 19th-century Moorish-Gothic villas.
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