Offering vacation apartments in Puglia, Residence Sole Mare lies in Alto Salento. This southern Italian coast accommodation is at Lido Specchiolla, in Brindisi province.
Booking a holiday home in the Alto Salento area will put the crucial sights of Puglia on your doorstep ... Brindisi is 20km away, Ostuni 12km, Cisternino and Locorotondo 35km, the safari park at Fasano and Alberobello are both 40km, while Lecce and Castellana Grotte are 55km away.
Brindisi is the main town and harbour of Puglia, also the chief town of its own province. It rises on a small peninsula that stretches between two inlets along the Adriatic coast. During summer the harbour is very busy as it is a ferry terminal to and from Greece. From Brindisi is possible to reach Corfu in only three hours by fast and comfortable hydrofoil. The Romans made 'Brundisium' their trading harbour on the east coast, joined to Rome by the Via Appia. The present town has some Roman remains (one of the two columns that indicate the end of the Via Appia) and considerable medieval monuments. Among these there are the churches of S.Benedetto, S.Maria del Casale, San Giovanni al Sepolcro and an Aragonese castle. The archaeological museum has a section dedicated to the bronze statues found in the coastal waters.
The old town called Ostuni rises on the last fringes of the Southern Murgia. With all its buildings uniformly painted in white, this spectacular township is, unsurprisingly, known as 'the White City', also 'the Queen of the Olives'. The little houses rise from the very rock, and are joined to other houses through arches and buttresses. At the top of the mountain rises the cathedral. It is a beautiful synthesis of Romanesque, Gothic and Venetian elements. From here you can admire a view of incomparable beauty. Besides the Cathedral there are many churches that hide in the confusion of roads and alleyways.
Alberobello has the most evocative and magical countryside of the region, where the tourist can admire the traditional trulli houses. These typical buildings have cupolas of grey stone and façades always whitened with lime.
Alberobello e Castellana Grotte pictures
Castellana Grotte is well known thanks to its caves, discovered in 1938. These are a complex of underground limestone cavities and long tunnels that they branch out 3km in length and 71 metres deep. In the inner caves you can admire the stalagmites and stalactites. You'll see extraordinary 'lunar' scenery and a collection of remarkable caverns.
In the 15th century, Lecce was developed as a commercial and cultural centre, visited by Florentine, Venetian, Genoese and Greek merchants. The historic centre has a typical medieval plan, formed by the irregular grid of narrow streets opening here and there into small piazzas. Lecce is famed for its marvellous Baroque buildings, made in Lecce stone, a warm-hued limestone easily workable with the chisel. The Cathedral and the Seminary face the square with the famous well. In the historic centre there are also the theatre and the Roman amphitheatre, dating back to the second century AD. Outside the city, there is the church of the Saints Nicolò and Cataldo, built by the Normans with an Oriental cupola.
Cisternino is a medieval village overlooking the valley of the trulli (Valle d'Itria). The whitewashed houses in the ancient village have remained almost intact since the 1400s and you will also find 18th century palazzi with their hanging gardens. The mediaeval parts of the village are characterised by stairways, ornamental windows and flower-covered balconies. From the 'belvedere' there is a fine panorama of the Itria Valley with its olive and almond groves and 'trulli' built of the flat local stones. The work of skilled stonemasons, these trulli were built not only as refuge for the animals and storage for farm implements, but also for the peasants to live in. There was the double function in building these houses and dry-stone walls of clearing the land of stone for cultivation or pasture. In the centre of Cisternino there is still the famous tradition of choosing meat from the butcher who will then cook it for you and serve it on the premises.
The Protected Coast and the Natural Reserve of Torre Guaceto comprises a precious stretch of unspoiled and charming coastline, where time seems to have stopped. The park is some 1000 hectares of land and 2000 hectares of sea, making an overall stretch of coast of some 7km. The last man-made construction on this coast was the ancient tower of Guaceto, built back in 1500 by the Aragonese as an outpost in order to warm them of invasions by the Turks - the robustly built tower has never needed rebuilding. It sits on a tall headland above the sea, dominating a reserve which is an astonishing example of biodiversity. This is also an important wetland habitat, it has terrific golden beaches and the crystal clear waters are teeming with sea shells.
The Management Consortium of Torre Guaceto organises Bicycle Trekking, Excursions, and Sea Watching expeditions.
