The arrival of a new year is rich with new proposals and dreams. Lovers of nature and trekking cannot wait to warm-up their legs and take up travelling around parts of Italy once more. 2018 could be the opportunity to visit Salento, in Puglia.

With its mild climate it is the ideal place to live for the whole year, perhaps at a slow pace or by bike, along the footsteps of the ancient pilgrims directed towards the docking bay for the Holy Land: Brindisi, Otranto, Taranto and Santa Maria di Leuca. A surprising travel in time, along cycle routes and walks for modern travellers, tourists or simply for lovers of trekking searching for contact with nature.

From the Via Sallentina to the Via Leucadense until reaching the tract of the Via Francigena of the South towards Santa Maria di Leuca: Salento is a strip of earth rich with trails, ancient tracks and routes immersed in the most authentic part of Puglia. A crossroads of routes that are also in the middle of promotional and developmental action for South Cultural Routes, the excellent project which includes the regions of Southern Italy with Puglia as the leader.  

History and culture, spirituality, nature and good food, represent the move towards a new type of tourism, sustainable which favours slow travel. Discovering Salento slowly enables you to emerge yourself in a 360 degree slow experience, from the blue of the sea, the colours and smells of a part of Italy kissed everyday by the first ray of sun. 

The heart of Salento can be found in the province of Lecce, it touches part of that of Brindisi on the Adriatic side and Taranto on the Ionian. Crossing this territory you may admire the cities and towns of the hinterland, jewels of the unique architectural style of the baroque of Lecce. There is not only landscape. A hike in Salento is a taste of an age and the hospitality of its people. The villages narrate tradition with their artisanal workshops. On the table all flavours can be found: exceptional local wine accompanied by home-made pasta prepared with chickpeas, flavoursome wild vegetable and exquisite deserts. 

A journey in the culture of this strip of land with various unforgettable legs: Lecce, the Florence of the South, the internal villages the countryside with olive trees and small walls, the coast with the sea and beaches of Torre Sant’Andrea, then there is Otranto, the millennial city that faces the East. The strip continues until Leuca, the Italian Finisterre, it then returns up the heel and along the Ionian coast, perhaps with a deviation, crossing into tarantino. Salento is an open air theatre in a varied landscape. The land of “lu sule, lu mare, lu ientu” to experience step by step.