A UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site since 2010, Otranto is the easternmost city in Italy: the first sun of the year rises here and here you can see, every morning, the first sun of Italy. Overlooking the blue Adriatic Sea and kissed by this powerful natural alchemy, Otranto has always fascinated its visitors with its thousand-year history. Silent and quiet in the winter, when it is swept by the mistral wind between the walls of the ramparts, the Castle and the Cathedral, cheerful and lively in the summer, when tourists and bathers fill the terraces of cafes and restaurants and color its beaches of the finest sand, Otranto will enchant you with its magic in every season of the year.
Little known but not to be missed are the two locations very close to our Masseria. The pond of the bauxite quarry, south of Otranto, will bewitch you with its extraterrestrial landscape: the fiery red earth, rich in minerals, welcomes visitors by reflecting in the emerald green waters of the pond, to offer you a natural spectacle of rare beauty. On the Adriatic, on the other hand, you'll take your breath away by a bright little dot overhanging the sea: it's the Punta Palascìa Lighthouse, the easternmost point in Italy. From its white terrace among the waves, overlooking the deep sea, you can enjoy a spectacular view: you can see the sunrise or the stars light up and, on mistral days, even the mountains of Albania appear on the horizon amid the blue.
The Masseria is strategically located: just 35 kilometers away, connected by a freeway, is Lecce, the world-famous capital of Salento. Just one day will be enough for you to fall in love with it, but not to visit it: Lecce is many cities in one. There is the Baroque Lecce, so rich and refined that it has earned the nickname "Florence of the South"; the Messapic Lecce and then the Roman Lecce, which play hide-and-seek under the buildings of the historic center; the popular Lecce, that casbah of streets and alleys in the shadow of the cathedral, which colors its most truthful and welcoming side. And then there is the more elegant and contemporary Lecce, which greets you with tree-lined avenues and squares, shopping streets, restaurants and trendy bars, where you can enjoy an inevitable "pasticciotto" with a Leccese coffee (with ice and almond milk), a "puccia salentina" or a "rustico" bread.
