{"id":25484,"date":"2024-09-17T18:41:35","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T16:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/?p=25484"},"modified":"2024-11-28T14:16:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T13:16:35","slug":"the-heel-of-italy-otranto-gallipoli-and-leuca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/en\/the-heel-of-italy-otranto-gallipoli-and-leuca\/","title":{"rendered":"Puglia &#8211; The &#8220;Heel of Italy&#8221;: Otranto, Gallipoli and Leuca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We start this adventure with a premise that may disappoint those already dreaming of spending a seaside holiday in a historical residence, especially given that the sea in this part of Italy, the subject of our itinerary, is truly among the most stunning in the whole country: in Salento, the main noble estates are rather to be found inland, in safer locations than the coastline, which was fortified with fortresses and watchtowers in the past due to the constant threat of Saracen pirates, and were not designed as vacation homes or country palazzos. Landowners, understandably, chose the relative safety of the hinterland, where they could oversee their properties and crops, rather than enjoy the beauty of the two seas that embrace either side of this land situated at the southernmost tip of Puglia, often referred to as the \u2018<strong>Heel of Italy<\/strong>\u2019. Beach tourism may be a comparatively new and lucrative trend today, but in the past, the priority was keeping safe and stockpiling provisions to be able to survive the harsh winter months, battered by the strong winds and perennially exposed to the risk of enemy invasion. One of the more positive aspects of this \u2018<em>entroterrizzazione<\/em>\u2019 or inland shift of all the noble estates, however, was the creation of large parks and gardens, which are key features of the rural farmhouse <em>masserias<\/em> and noble palazzos still existing in Lower Salento.<br \/>\nThis trip will take you about one or at most two days should you choose to focus solely on the historical residences. Alternatively, you could extend your stay to a week or more if you decide to visit in the summer and complement your discovery of Salento&#8217;s palazzos with an exploration of the many incredibly beautiful beaches and notable time-honoured centres here. In times of yore, this region was mainly frequented by those embarking on pilgrimages to the <strong>Holy Land<\/strong>, departing from Otranto or Leuca. Our itinerary takes the form of an inverted triangle with its base connecting two main centres of this territory, namely <strong>Gallipoli<\/strong> and <strong>Otranto<\/strong>, and its southern point reaching the <strong>Sanctuary of Santa Maria de Finibus Terrae<\/strong> and the tip of <strong>Santa Maria di Leuca<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We start this adventure with a premise that may disappoint those already dreaming of spending [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[496,564],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-puglia-en","category-territories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Puglia - The &quot;Heel of Italy&quot;: Otranto, Gallipoli and Leuca | Dimore Storiche Italiane<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/en\/the-heel-of-italy-otranto-gallipoli-and-leuca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Puglia - The &quot;Heel of Italy&quot;: Otranto, Gallipoli and Leuca | Dimore Storiche Italiane\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We start this adventure with a premise that may disappoint those already dreaming of spending [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/en\/the-heel-of-italy-otranto-gallipoli-and-leuca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dimore Storiche Italiane\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-17T16:41:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-28T13:16:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/salento-piazza-duomo-puglia.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alessandro D&#039;Agostino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alessandro D&#039;Agostino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/en\/the-heel-of-italy-otranto-gallipoli-and-leuca\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/en\/the-heel-of-italy-otranto-gallipoli-and-leuca\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alessandro D'Agostino\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dimorestoricheitaliane.it\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/44c5fbb58a9ff02a18beac7215decfd7\"},\"headline\":\"Puglia &#8211; 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