Location
Puglia & Salento | Lecce | Otranto
Puglia
The region of Puglia (or Apulia in English) is very long and narrow. It starts in the north at the Achilles or the spur and ends approximately 260 miles away at the most south easterly part of Italy in the heel.
Puglia has been described by some as the Tuscany of the 80s or Umbria of the 90s – I personally think this is a bit of an exaggeration as there are some things about Puglia which will never put it on a par with these areas of Italy but it DOES have a charm and style all of its own.
Salento
Found in the most south-easterly part of Puglia, the fascinating “rustic” Salento is a unique world due to its landscape, traditions, dialect, customs and folklore. Salento starts in the North, just south of Brindisi, goes down South West to the south of Taranto and then to the end of the heel going south.
“The heel of the boot” of Italy is a mass of green olive groves and vineyards, jutting into the clear and sunny Mediterranean Sea, with the Adriatic on the east coast and the Ionion on the west. I think that the Salento area has a very similar landscape to that of some of the Greek Islands, in fact I am often reminded of my holidays in Greece when I am here, except the food and wine is much nicer! The shores of the coastline are wild and unspoilt with inlets, caves, small bays, cliffs and long sandy beaches.
