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The seas and the inland nature
 “Salento: the sun, the sea, the wind” so goes the local saying; a perfect synthesis to describe this strip of land between two seas: on one side, the Ionian of the Gulf of Taranto, which overlooks the North-African coast, on the other side the Adriatic, creating a bridge between east and west.
For most of the year the sun warms and colours the earth deep red, rich in iron and calcareous rock, while the wind, coming inland from the coast brings with it the fragrance of the sea, refreshing the summer evenings.
The territory is a result of the perfect harmony of the heat of the sun, the generosity of the sea and the steadfastness of the wind.
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Have you ever seen so many sea scenes in a single land?
 The 250 km Salento coastline is a marvellous Italian peninsula characterized by long sandy beaches and rocks.
To visit Salento it is necessary to go along two itineraries starting from Brindisi coast line: the first along the Adriatic coast, towards Otranto that goes on after the Cape where the Adriatic sea ends and joins the Ionian sea up to Leuca; the second one, along the Ionian coast, from Santa Maria di Leuca to Gallipoli, Nardň and Porto Selvaggio.
Starting from San Cataldo you can find lots of sandy beaches faced  by the crystal sea. Here you will enjoy all the comforts of a holiday resort: bars, restaurants and live music. You can also find sandy beaches in San Foca and Torre dell’Orso, which are crowded especially in summer. From here you reach Otranto where the sand finishes and your journey goes ahead along the rocky coastline.
Further to the south is the town of Santa Cesarea Terme, famous for its baths and characterized by deep rocks and natural grottos.
Then there are Castro, Tricase and Gagliano del Capo, until you will find the Cape of Santa Maria di Leuca, with its pretty sandy inlets and its magical atmosphere.
The pearls of the Ionian coast are Ugento (with sandy beaches) and Gallipoli, but Porto Cesareo too is worthy to be visited.
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Red soil, silver olive trees and green mediterranean maquis
You could catch a glimpse of Salento's modest heights that decrease softly towards it's seas. Or you could journey in Salento like the geographers and travellers of the 14th century did as they especially praised that “beautiful, vague and plentiful land”.
 You could then spot the rough plains beaten by the wind and covered of centuries old olive trees with their gnarled trunks, entangled and figuratively marked by the strict layer of ungrateful rock, most hard rock; fertile cloaks of tamed soils, one over to crops, most strikingly represented by the fruitful wine yards, authentic flag of the wise and caring work of the peasant and yonder, aboriginal woods of haulm oak, eucalyptus and ageless oak trees taking turns with aromatic plants, Indian fig-trees and scented agavi.
There are no mountains. And the eyes would sweep over far horizons running into the ancient architectures of the stone here and there: dry walls are simple or complex, linear or winding or arranged in intricate patterns, assaulted by myrtle, by the branches of the haulm oak and of the thorny oak tree and turned into the dwellings of reptiles and insects, chased by the intense industrial farming; the pinion, small pyramids of stone laid closed to the gates of the crop land, that silently told to the shepherds not to use those grounds for the pasture of their herds; the "masserie" of the various architectonic solutions, fortified together with the outhouse attached to it, noble or functional. And then the Menhir, the Dolmen and the Specchie.
The mountains are missing. And so are the rivers. That’s why the eyes would sweep over a landscape of rocky layers and calcareous banks. A miser landscape of soil and dryness, where the waters rain, where do not staunch, find a place in the bowels of the soil, creating tanks from which people have drawn water for centuries through the digging of deep wells. A landscape where the nature has been hard and where only the climate and the stubbornness of man has made it possible to produce the good products that for centuries has been made thanks to the noble soil.
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