WTI Magazine #5    2013 Nov, 15
Author : Maurizio Gabriele      Translation by: Alessandra Bitetti

If "USA Today", the most popular newspaper in America, included Lecce (10th of March 2011) among the "10 great places to go off the beaten path in Italy", the credit - without any doubt – for this belongs to the fascinating baroque of the "Florence of the South", but also to the natural beauties surrounding the city. Among them there are different "gems" that rise along the coasts and charm, year after year, an increasing number of tourists attracted by blue and clear waters. 

50 kilometers southeast of Lecce you can admire a breath-taking panorama donated by the high and jagged coast of the Adriatic Sea towards the tip of Italy. Santa Cesarea Terme is a small town with a few more than three thousand citizens, which in the summer increases tenfold its population - a frequent phenomenon in several seaside resorts of Salento.

Beautiful creeks and elegant establishments obtained among the rocks and topped - this is a characteristic of the village - by a series of Moorish Mediterranean style cottages overlooking the sea. You can reach the top of the village going through striking roads that creep into forests of secular olive trees. The area owes its fame to the spa which uses sulfur sources, chloride and iodide, gushing in four caves that communicate directly with the sea.

Much of the coastline is, however, embellished by a series of prehistoric cliffs and caves overlooking the sea. Immediately to the south – towards Castro Marina - we run into the Romanelli cave, but even before there is the unmissable U shaped bay of Porto Miggiano, that is nestled in a cove limited by high chalkies cliffs overlooking the sea. The bay is well hided from the winds, and the sea that brushes the beach is emerald-green. The small touristic port is a little jewel which was formed near the tower, dating back to the sixteenth century and built to spot the Turks enemies.

Going through four kilometers of the fantastic coast towards the south, you arrive to Castro, a six hundred inhabitants district situated in a splendid panoramic position. Castro Marina, just two kilometers from the village, stands around a rocky bend where numerous fishing boats wait. With them, there are the tourist barges that constantly shuttle towards the three main caves in the area: the Romanelli, the Blue Grotto (with a very suggestive coloration of the water) and the Zinzulusa, to which you can only access by the sea. The latter, that is 160 meters deep, has the greatest appeal and takes its name from the dialect word "Zinzuli", that means rags, because this is the shape assumed by the innumerable stalactites hanging from the ceiling.