I love off-seasons, especially post-summer. I know, I can afford to love them as being a freelancer I can travel when crowds disappear from my favourite places. In off-season beaches have that special silence and the everyday local life seems closer than ever. Locals can relax after summer rushes, hardly half of the shops and restaurants are open, everything is empty and silent but the sea is still warm – and the air too – until the end of October. At least in Southern Europe. A real slow-travel experience indeed.
My last off-season vacation before the pandemics broke out turned out to be a long Italian journey. For practical reasons (and for our passion for Italy). We didn’t know until the last moment when we could hit the road in Hungary and we had bags that we could only take by car (musical instruments). And we wanted sea. And high temperature. South of France would have been too costly and it is not south enough, Spain and Greece are too far. The weather forecast changed daily, depending on which website we watched, so Sicily, Calabria and Apulia were the regions in competition. Ah, yes, because there was something else we really looked for: to find a house at least for a week far away from everything with a sea view and with no neighbours to disturb with our music during the night. Finally Apulia won. The weather seemed to be the hottest there and we found a dream house for a dream price. I guess everything else would have been "the right decision" as well. For us this was the one.
Let me explain first why I would go back immediately (if I could):
Sunsets, one of the most beautiful beaches of the world, the fish market in the neighbouring village, olive gardens, the silence, the different beaches and Primitivo wine. The red soil that is even more amazing in the sunset, the wind coming straight from the African coast and the distance from everything that you can feel at the end of a peninsula in the southern edge of a continent.
And I would go back for the pizzica music and dance that I missed this time. In Taranto, for example, where every year a big festival is held for the tarantella music and dance - here they call it pizzica.
As I already knew the tarantella and the legend about it, my first thing was to check if there are tarantula spiders in Apulia as I’m afraid of spiders. Well, certain spiders. The good news is that that big hairy spider doesn’t live there. But there are other venomous spiders, like the wolf spider (Lycosa tarantula) that is actually the protagonist of the legend around the tarantella dance. It lives around Taranto and allegedly its bite makes people dance but not in a happy way. The wolf spider doesn’t weave a web, it lives in a hole in the ground and it moves from hole to hole. And here comes an interesting part of the story: when early Italian travelers arrived in Africa and saw big hairy spiders running into holes, they immediately called them tarantulas as they seemed similar to the ones in their homeland. But they are not the real tarantulas, and they are bigger and scarier. At least to me. Anyway, wolf spiders only bite if you piss them off. And speaking of spiders, I didn’t know either that near Taranto lives the European black widow (some think that this was the famous spider with the venom that caused the dancing symptom) that has a stronger venom. It is a small one with bright colour, but it has its own life that doesn’t include biting tourists.
Ok, enough of spiders, back to brilliant Apulia.
From here Apulia seemed to be a 10-day journey, as it is "only the heel of the boot", that we can criss-cross when we want from its east side to its west. At least that’s what we thought. In ten days we saw only a part of the Salento-peninsula that is only a small part of the region. But we didn’t regret a missing mile. You look at the map at home and imagine vaguely the trips you want to do and then you arrive and your plans are overwritten by local influences. Even as an experienced traveler. Or maybe because of that.
We drove 1600 kilometers (in 3 days) to reach our house in Posto Rosso, 25 kms from Gallipoli. Yes, the house: after a multi-day search we have booked a trullo. A traditional Apulian stone hut but without the conical roof. Its roof was flat, good enough to watch sunset over the sea and play music in the mild afternoon wind. The trullo (trulli is the plural) is usually constructed in fields as temporary shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by agricultural labourers. As Apulia’s main income came and comes from agriculture (today the other main sector is tourism), one can see trullos of all kinds wherever one goes. The most famous ones are in Alberobello and around, the ones with the conical roof. Celebrities bought many of those houses and transformed them into luxury vacation homes.
Posto Rosso is in the west part of Salento which means that you can see the sunset every single day over the sea. This magical ritual of Nature was the highlight of each afternoon. We found a different spot every time and spent that half hour with staring the perfect composition of the wind, clouds, the sun and the sea. I had seen remarkable sunsets before, but never as many and as unforgettable as those.
Tips for sunset: by the lighthouse of Santa Maria di Leuca, the most southern city at the tip of Salento and the Italian peninsula. This is where the Ionian-sea and the Adriatic-sea meet. The viewpoint above the city is stunning (with the lighthouse and a relatively new cathedral), the sun dives into the sea over the port , and when only a pink sky reminds you of the daylight, you just have to go across to the other side and see the moon saying "hello" over the Ionian-sea.
The center of the Salento region is Lecce, the "Florence of the South", where the baroque era found a special and magnificent form of expression. You should not miss it with its ancient roman ruins, baroque buildings, churches, cafés, elegant streets and South-Italian ambiance.
And there are Otranto and Gallipoli towns with their walled cities and ports and beaches, Nardó with its famous wines and Casarano with one of the oldest Christian churches of the world. And these are only the cities of lower Salento. The roads between towns are not the ones where you drive like crazy so don’t plan too much driving for a ten-day trip.
Salento is famous for its beaches. You would think that a coastline with flat scenery in Italy is not something you dream about, but expect spectacular and above all, diverse beaches. Discovering the emblematic beaches is a must in Salento. The itinerary will depend on the wind. If the wind blows your head off in one beach, you surely will find still water in another with a different orientation. But surfers will know that for sure.
The most beautiful beach is undoubtedly the beach of Torre San Giovanni. You can walk kilometers on the bright white sand or in the crystal clear turquoise water. Just like in the Caribbean. In off-season the number of people on the hundreds of pictures you take in one day is probably zero. Unless you want one on your photo. It is hard to describe the beauty you can see. And there is, not too far, La Piscina, a natural pool at Posto Rosso, where snorkeling is an option too.
And let’s not forget gastronomy. At the foot of the tower of Torre San Giovanni there is the best fish market in a small shop I have ever seen (Peschería). Here you can find fresh seafood straight from fishermen’s boats and you can buy your dinner for a reasonable price that you cook in the lovely kitchen of your trullo. To find a good Primitivo wine you just need to go to the grocery store in the main street of the village and spend around 5 euros to by the best tastes you can imagine.
And as Apulia produces the 40% of Italy’s olive oil, you are in olive paradise there. Before electricity spread in Europe, the olive oil from Apulia was the source for light in the old continent.
It is said that Salento is the home of "sun, sea and wind". That is true – and it is much, much more. You don’t necessary have to go all the way by car, there are flights of course, to Bari. But one thing is sure: you have to go.
Eszter and János
