Talking about Alto Salento means telling the story of a journey along ancient roads rich in history, for slow visitors who prefer peace and quiet, in the footsteps of the ancient pilgrims who in the Middle Ages, after reaching Rome, continued to the Holy Land. We are on the South francigenza Road, a itinerary long 700 km that connects Rome to the ports of Puglia, as far as Brindisi. You can decide to start with a visit to the fascinating remains of Egnatia, the ancient Roman port city. The visible structures allow us to imagine the splendor of this center. Interesting is the Messapian necropolis, with pit tombs dug into the stone, semi-chamber tombs and monumental frescoed chamber tombs. Proceeding inland, among the majestic olive trees, you reach the Parco Rupestre of Lama d’Antico. To reach the coast again up to Torre Santa Sabina and from here towards San Vito dei Normanni, stopping at the crypt of San Biagio, the heart of a rocky village of the fourth century AD, where lived a community of monks Italo-Byzantine.
Returning to the coast we will cross the beautiful nature Reserve of Torre Guaceto, to finally reach the Roman columns of Brindisi, where the journey will end. “Porta d’Oriente” is known as Brindisi since ancient times, when it became an important landing place for Roman troops first, and then, for the merchants of the Serenissima.
The history of Brindisi is linked to the life of its port, a center of trade. It was probably this that attracted the Romans and led them to found a colony of Latin law located as a sentinel on the Adriatic. So Brindisi, which was a dominant center in the Messapian age, rose to the head of a bridge to the East in Roman times. You can see cultivated fields, in a mosaic of colors, with expanses of olive groves, vineyards and colorful orchards, interrupted by roads and sporadic clearings.
