Salento in October - Zinzalusa, Santa Cesarea, Castro

Wednesday is the last day before the weather changes again. It’s just a little hazier than the day before, not too bad, so we set off quite early along the coast road from Otranto going south. Our first stop is at Porto Badisco. It’s before 9 o’clock so there’s nobody about, just some people filming down by the tiny beach. The inlet and the colour of the sea are beautiful.

Our next stop is Santa Cesarea Terme where free parking proves difficult. We manage to find some white lines, possibly the only ones, but perhaps it’s just for 15 minutes? I put the ‘disco orario’ and we have a quick walk along the main street. The town is busy with people because it’s a spa where people go for medical reasons, not just for wellness treatments. There are some fine villas similar to those in Santa Maria di Leuca but the most picturesque part of the town is undoubtedly Palazzo Sticchi. 

The villa, built on a rocky outcrop 20 meters above the sea level, was built by Giovanni Pasca, who managed the first Santa Cesarea thermal springs, and work was carried out by the engineer Pasquale Ruggieri responsible for many of the villas and the Cristo Re church in Santa Maria di Leuca. It is one of the most important expressions of the Moorish style typical of some seaside resorts of Salento in the 19th century. The villa, which is private, has recently been restored and can be admired in all its splendour from the outside: a portico with arches resting on twisted columns, delicate carvings in Lecce stone, with arabesques, stars, and floral motifs and a large dome and other according to the Islamic architecture. Worth the stop.

We drive on to Grotta della Zinzulusa where we are lucky enough to find one of the five free parking spaces available. We walk down the steps as far as the entrance to the cave, a spectacular walkway directly above the sea, but don’t pay to visit the cave. 

This stop doesn’t take long, and nor does the next one in Castro Marina where we lose patience with the idea of paying for parking when there’s nobody about and much is closed in mid-October. Also, it’s nowhere near as pretty as Tricase Porto. 

After a short photo stop we drive up to Castro itself where parking is free and park in a large car park near Conad City supermarket. From there, it’s a short walk to the historical centre. We start off walking around by the mura messapiche. There are fine views of the coast below especially towards the north. After completing the seaward part we turn up into the historical centre and find ourselves near the Chiesa dell’Annunziata. There are still some nice frescoes inside, but the best part (for us) are the remains of the Byzantine church on the outside, facing Piazza della Vittoria.

Next to the church is the Palazzo Vescovile. Here the empty rooms have been given new life thanks to some volunteers in 2018 and in particular to a skilled artist who has ‘decorated’ – the speech marks are because all of the decorations are only carefully pinned to the walls, nothing of the original building has been altered in any way – the rooms so as to evoke a possible ‘reconstruction’ of a fine palace of the time. Many of the works he has done are really beautiful. We leave a small donation which is only symbolic towards the countless hours of work to realize something so precious and ‘ephemeral’.

Interesting, but I’m getting hungry. On the other hand, it’s the last decent day before the rain arrives, so we decide to just have a snack for lunch. A rustico and a pasticiotto each, a beer and coffee and we’re soon on our way. We take the coast road back towards Otranto because the views in the other direction are different. If we had more time, there would possibly be walks to do along the headland. 

We go round Otranto and continue north, first stop I Faraglioni di Sant’Andrea. Free parking after 30th September. Spectacular cliff and rock formations. I’ll let the photo do the explaining. 

We walk a little way south along the cliffs, once again tempted to go further. Instead, we return to the car and go to a place somewhere we remembered from our trip to the area 20 years ago – the beach of Torre dell’Orso. Not quite as beautiful as we remembered it? It depends on the light, the sun, the sand, the sea which is calm or with waves or rough, or the colour of the sky? Hopefully, one of the remaining days the weather will be nice enough to return.

I plan our last stop of the day to have a quick look at Baia dei Turchi. But we can’t find anywhere to park, many accesses are closed, maybe we should have turned off before …..we’ll try again. Time to go back to base to rest.

After supper we have a walk around Otranto ‘by night’ well, between 8 and 9 pm which is the best we can manage. We are surprised that there isn’t any ‘movida’ on this weekday evening - everything is really very quiet. Just the tiny square in the centre of the historical part has some restaurants which are totally full of foreign tourists, while the side streets are practically deserted. We make our way home. It’s been a great day.