itinerary Gallipoli

GALLIPOLI: SAINTS, SCOUNDRELS, KNIGHTS AND FISHERS

A town with thousands facets outlined by the sun where paved roads introduce to enchanting views of a no ending sea.

You can enter the heart of Gallipoli and catch a glance to its millenary history getting charmed by its works of Art or you can chase after the flavours of Gallipoli's traditional cuisine, the colours and voices of its workers, the chirping of the birds over the deep blue sea.

What used to be but a dock for fishers, become then an important seaport of the kingdom of Naples, welcomes today its visitors on the ancient islet connected with dry land by a seventeenth century bridge

A fountain stands before the gates of the ancient town (the fountain is actually a poem engraved in stones telling Ovid' Metamorphosis) and takes your look towards places of worship for fishers still casting and hauling their nets.

Beyond the bridge a huge castle protects a myriad of lanes which lead to stately homes concealing charming courtyards.

The baroque facade of the palaces narrates an ancient splendour, one of times when the power of Gallipoli's port rivalled Venice's.

The bastions are spangled with places of worship still related to craft-guild.

The beauty of the Santa Maria della Purità Church, a real gallery containing precious pictures and paper-pulp works, is astonishing; the huge Sant'Agata's Cathedral guards a hundred of seventeenth century pictures besides having a ---carparo--- facade with Lecce stone statues (that is to say statues made of a very particular yellow tuff characteristic of the region).

In the small square before the cathedral the heroic deeds of Roberto il Diavolo still echo; Roberto il Diavolo is a myth for the town together with the wooden statue representing Misma (guarded in the San Francesco d'Assisi Church), known as "il Malladrone", the "horrid good looking" which fascinated even D'annunzio.