Italy famously looks like a boot and during our stay in the south we drove to the bottom of the heel that goes by the name of the Salento peninsula, to the town of Santa Maria di Leuca.
It’s a peninsula of solar farms, polytunnels, olive groves and vineyards, orchards and fields of vegetables, derelict farm buildings and scattered villages. Every so often we spotted a circular pajare in the fields. Similar to the trulli of Alberobello and built with dry stone walls, these odd but elaborate structures were designed to provide shelter and reminded me of Mayan architecture. The wind whipped across the flat landscape, battering the car.
The town at the end of the peninsula proved to be an unexpected treat. A long prom looked out over the lively sea and a wealth of grand villas looked out over the prom.
The villas were a real surprise because part of me expected remote Leuca to be locked in a time-warp and the sort of genteel poverty one finds in many a seaside town. I certainly didn’t expect it to be a destination for the rich and famous, but in the 19th century the town became a fashionable and popular resort. The wealthy built a string of grand residences in a variety of styles, from the art nouveau to the Arabic, the Gothic to the Chinese. Colourful, individual and standing in attractive and shaded grounds, they still give Leuca character and class.
It was morning and the town was quiet, just a few people sunbathing in the heat on the rocky shore. The beach boasted a couple of stone changing rooms from the days when the Victorian upper classes would patronise the resort and needed somewhere posh and private to don their swimming gear.
We drove round to the bottom of Leuca’s famous cascade, which marks the end of the Puglian Aqueduct, a feat of engineering completed in the early 20th century to bring water to this arid part of Italy. It tumbles down the hill from the shrine that gives the town its name and is a dramatic piece of fantasy principally directed by Mussolini, although you won’t see his name mentioned much on the information boards. The cascade is dry on most days of the year and, typically, we visited on one of them. Still, the jumble of rocks, a grand column at its base and two flights of stairs alongside the falls give it grandeur and we climbed up in the sweaty heat, drinking in the views of the town, its beaches and the marina.
It was worth the climb too because at the top stands a handsome lighthouse and a vast square in front of the shrine to the Madonna di Leuca. Beyond is the point where the Adriatic meets the Ionian sea.
The shrine – visited in recent years by the pope – was built on the site of an old Pagan temple dedicated to Minerva but is now full of the sort of religious doom and gloom that’s designed to make everyone feel sinful and guilty, so we opted for a cold drink in the cafe next-door and left the faithful to their wailings and grovellings.
Later, we drove north along the coast, avoiding the motorway, past some of the simple military towers that the great and good had erected in centuries past to protect their domains from raiders. The little seaside towns and villages were a mixed bunch, many of them lacking the wealth of Leuca and somewhat down at heel. We stopped for lunch at Pescoluse, settled into a nice beach-side restaurant, and listened to a loud American and her other half discussing the politics of their various art galleries and numerous health problems (polyps in the digestive tract for one). Veal milanese made a nice change from seafood and afterwards we walked along the beach while the vigorous wind helped to sand-blast us clean.
We stopped amid glorious countryside at Punta del Pizzo at the other end of the Baia Verde – a bay we knew well from our stay in Gallipoli – driving down a dusty track into the pine woods to find the car park. On the other side of the woods, a beautiful and sheltered sandy beach welcomed us with views all the way back to Gallipoli itself. The sea was so still it was like glass and even Graham immersed himself in it, which is saying something.
It was a beautiful if popular spot for a chill out but when we returned next day to claim a sun bed or two, we discovered that they were hired out for the season and unavailable.
Their loss…