Linking Otranto and Leuca and gently spreading across the Jonio
Linking Otranto and Leuca and gently spreading across the Jonio, like elegant, reclining Greek women, Salento’s Serre hills interrupt the plains, undulating across the landscape turning it into something like a seascape on a windy day. The name Serre is similar to the Spanish word ‘sierra’, meaning a chain of low mountains, indeed the highest peak hardly tops 200 metres at Alessano.
The serre hills are of very hard limestone, called ‘bitter rock’, so named because of how difficult it is to work these lands. In fact, the only crop that can be cultivated here is the olive, a tree that not by chance has come to symbolise the rural Salento landscape and the Mediterranean in general.
Dry-stone walls are everywhere as are the typical ‘pajare’, low stone buildings used in times gone by as shelters by the local farm workers.
Throughout the Serre hills, as well as the natural landscape to admire – kissed by sea breezes and crisscrossed with stone walls – there are also plenty of different places to visit of historical and religious interest.
There is lots of evidence in the landscape that points back to Neolithic times: the dolmen and menhir – or burial grounds – also called Osanna. These can be reached by car or by taking special guided tours, including the dolmen at Salve, Melissano, Racale and Ortelle; the menhir at Giuggianello and Giurdignano, of which 15 survive, and a great many standing stones including those at Carpignano, Supersano, Castrignano del Capo and Gagliano del Capo.
And there’s not shortage of more recent architectural beauty either. In particular there are the churches and Shrines, very characteristic of southern Italy. The most significant is certainly the Shrine of Saint Mary of Leuca, that sits right on the top of a promontory close to a very tall lighthouse, making the perfect juncture between sea and sky.
At Alezio there is a splendid shrine named Santa Maria della Lizza. No-one knows exactly when it was built but it has a fortified entrance, added by Carlo I d’Angiò during the days of the Turkish incursions, that from the outside makes the church look not unlike a castle.
The Shrine of Santa Maria Coelimanna in Supersano rises majestically on the top of a hill and it’s a steep climb to get up to it. The complex was built in the 17th century on the site of a pre-existing 15th-century shrine. According to legend the church was built over a cave where a shepherd girl had found an effigy of the ‘manna coeli’ Virgin, the Virgin of the heavenly manna.
If relaxation and good food are more up your street then there are lots of farms and vineyards that open to tourists during the summer. They will allow you to visit places of interest on their land, including stone forts, pajare and age-old olive presses as well as to sit down to enjoy great, traditional local dishes.