LECCE

The Roman city of Licea, now defined as the Florence of the south, is a city of simple yet refined charm. A stroll into its rich and evocative old city centre is studded with façades and gateways, which appear before the visitor as an almost inconceivable surprise. The church of Rosario, the church of S. Giovanni Battista and the church of S. Croce, are simply magnificent as is the monumental entrance to the surrounding wall of the Piazza Duomo, the former Celestini convent, etc. You will be bewitched…

OTRANTO

The most eastern part of the Italian peninsula shows its beauty through its strong Byzantine influences, particularly in its Cathedral. The mysterious charm of this town is evident in the town’s crest, the “Torre del Serpe" (to the south east of the town), linked to legends and mysteries of war and the sea: telling of a gigantic sea snake, which during the night came out of the sea to swallow the oil from the lighthouse beacon, causing the shipwreck of many passenger ships.
The well-known event of 1480 with the attack of the Turks and the massacre of the Otrantini are also famous and the bodies of these men are still conserved in the town’s Cathedral. This also holds a beautiful mosaic dating back to 1163 that covers the entire central aisle almost like a rug, depicting a giant tree of life, symbolising the entire epochal universe, with western themes and eastern traditions, from the Old Testament to the knightly tales of the Round Table, the signs of the zodiac, Hell, Heaven and the Apocalypse.
The castle on the other hand is the fruit of the fortification work of the Spanish who, following the 1480 massacre, decided to fortify the city with circular towers and high city walls, making the old city centre the shape of a giant a ship.