★ Town · Bari, the Murgia and Castel del MonteAltamuraThe town of DOP bread, with a cathedral commissioned by Frederick II, in the heart of the Murgia; a few kilometres away a cave holds a prehistoric skeleton.
The storyOn 3 October 1993 some cavers exploring the Lamalunga cave found a complete human skeleton, encased in calcite concretions: a Neanderthal who lived about 130-170 thousand years ago, one of the most complete ever found. It cannot be removed without destroying it, so it has stayed where it is: you see it through the cameras of the visitor centre. Close by is the Pulo, a sinkhole more than eighty metres deep.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Gargano, Tremiti and the Daunian MountainsLuceraA town in the Monti Dauni with a Roman amphitheatre, a Gothic cathedral and a huge Swabian and Angevin fortress on the hill.
The storyAround 1224 Frederick II deported thousands of rebel Muslims from Sicily to Lucera: for almost eighty years it became a Muslim city in the heart of the Christian kingdom, with mosques and a Saracen guard fiercely loyal to the emperor. In 1300 Charles II of Anjou destroyed it and sold its inhabitants into slavery; the cathedral rose in place of the main mosque.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · SalentoGalatinaA Baroque town in the inland Salento, with a Gothic basilica covered entirely in frescoes, Santa Caterina d'Alessandria.
The storyGalatina is the capital of tarantism: until the 20th century people who believed they had been bitten by the taranta spider, almost always women, were cured with days of music and dance, and on 29 June they came to the chapel of St Paul to ask for grace. In 1959 the anthropologist Ernesto de Martino came here to study the phenomenon, and his book «The Land of Remorse» made it known to the world. The pizzica dance was born from the music of those rites.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · SalentoVernoleA small fortified village between Lecce and the sea, with walls, a castle and streets laid out at right angles.
The storyIt was rebuilt in 1535 by the military architect Gian Giacomo dell'Acaya, who made it one of the rare planned fortified towns of the Renaissance in the South: bastioned walls, a castle and a grid of straight streets. The same architect later designed the defences of Lecce.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · Bari, the Murgia and Castel del MonteMargherita di SavoiaThe largest salt pans in Italy: pools of pink and white water stretching for kilometres between the sea and the countryside, home to flamingos and other birds.
The storySalt has been gathered here at least since Roman times. The town grew up around the salt pans and until 1879 was simply called Saline di Barletta; it took its current name in honour of Queen Margherita. Today the pools are also a nature reserve, one of the most important wetlands in the Mediterranean for migratory birds.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Valle d'Itria and the trulli coastFasanoThe ruins of a Messapian and Roman city right on the sea, crossed by the Via Traiana, with the acropolis on the headland and an archaeological museum.
The storyGnathia, as the Romans called it, was a stop on the Via Traiana towards Brindisi. The poet Horace passed through in 37 BC and in his Satires mocked the inhabitants, who claimed that in their temple incense melted by itself, without fire. The museum holds the painted «Gnathia» pottery, famous throughout the ancient Mediterranean.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Bari, the Murgia and Castel del MonteBarlettaA hill above the Ofanto river with the remains of a medieval town and a small museum, on the site of one of the most famous battles in history.
The storyOn 2 August 216 BC, on the plain below the hill, Hannibal surrounded and destroyed a Roman army far larger than his own: tens of thousands of soldiers died in a single day. The manoeuvre of Cannae is still studied in military academies all over the world. A town later grew up on the hill and was abandoned in the Middle Ages.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Gargano, Tremiti and the Daunian MountainsManfredoniaNext to a Romanesque church, the outline of a vanished early Christian basilica, rebuilt full size in wire mesh.
The storyOnly the foundations remained of the early Christian basilica of Siponto. In 2016 the artist Edoardo Tresoldi redrew it in space with kilometres of wire mesh: transparent naves, columns, arches and apse through which you see the sky. It is a rare case of contemporary art telling the story of an ancient monument without touching it.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · SalentoOtrantoA white lighthouse on a wild cliff south of Otranto, at the easternmost point of the Italian peninsula.
The storyThe lighthouse was built in the second half of the 19th century to guard the Strait of Otranto, where the Adriatic meets the Ionian and on clear days you can see the mountains of Albania. As the easternmost point of Italy, this is where the country's first sunrise appears on 1 January: on New Year's Day hundreds of people arrive at dawn.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Beach · SalentoNardòA bay of rocks and crystal-clear water at the bottom of a pine wood, inside a nature park, reachable only on foot.
The storyIn the park's caves, such as the Grotta del Cavallo, the remains of some of the oldest modern humans in Europe were found, people who lived about 45 thousand years ago. The park also exists thanks to Renata Fonte, a Nardò councillor who opposed building speculation on the coast and was murdered in 1984: today it is named after her.
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