At dawn of the new year In Otranto, in Salento, chasing the first sunbeams of 2009
It is said that it is enough to admire the first “smile” of the sun of the new year to propitiate your future. Or rather, this is what the people of Otranto (the ancient Hidruntum) say with conviction. For them, moreover, it should not be difficult to enjoy the first sunbeams: this little town of Salento, is, in fact, the most eastern place of Italy (seeing any map of the Mediterranean it can be seen that the opposing sides are approaching the Adriatic exactly the 40th parallel) and therefore it’s there where the dawn first appears. And it is so every day! But the dawn of January 1 is unique in the whole year, and then if you admire it you will be lucky, more than eating lentils. So many are those who meet in Punta Palascia (Capo d’Otranto, the most eastern place), near the old lighthouse, to toast for the second time after the “cin cin” by midnight, while the sun rises from the sea. And you can make a wish, because every opportunity is good. The New Year’s day in Salento is rooted in this tradition and the the show is so beautiful that it appears unreal. The most authentic souvenirs, once back at home, are only those images that remain in your memory. Those games of colours and transpariencies, which filter out waves and light up the dark sky. Those veiled contours of the mountains of Albany, which are slowly discovered, almost to embrace like if there was the sea. Already this can be enough to choose Otranto as the privileged destination for the next New year’s eve holiday. But we are only at the start. Left behind the noise and smells of lovely beaches, Otranto is ideal for a relaxing holyday among nature, art and culture. Of course you must enjoy the sea: you can find welcoming bays, with beaches made up with fine sand, caves. You can choose to go to lowlands or to vertiginous peaks. Here you will find “Porto Badisco”, a miniature of a fjord surrounded by figs from India and spots of mirtus from Salento, where, according to the Virgilian history of Eneide, Enea landed with Acate and his other companions. Then you can go through the narrow paved in stones alleys that lap the white houses in the shade. You walk looking at the sky you above attracted by a door frame or the decoration of a palace, which remind the magnificence of the past. And you arrive at the Cathedral, “la Signora d’Otranto” as they like to call it around here. It was built in Romanesque-Gothic style, with Renaissance “rose windows” and a Baroque portal. When you are inside it you are astonished in front of the mosaic by Pantaleone, composed with polychrome tiles of the twelfth century, the greatest in all western countries (it is one thousand square metres large). It represents the life tree in its completeness between good and evil. From the cathedral to another wonder: the imposing castle with a pentagonal plant, built by the Byzantines. Outside the city walls, instead, you can go to the discovery of dolmens and menhirs. There is a high concentration of them, equal only to that of some places in Britain. In Giurdiniano, in the town square, there is the menhir of San Vincenzo, the most visited by tourists, and it is also the only one that has retained its original aspect. Also reported by maps, the dolmen of “Scusi”, in Minervino, the first Italian dolmen to be recorded in the second half of the 19th century. Its particularity is given by its perfect alignment to the “solstitial axis”. Finally you cannot miss “Il letto della Vecchia”, a place rich with mysteries and anecdotes. Large blocks of stones, with a polished surface, emerge from the soil and seem silent sentinels among the olive trees, whose fruits always make this land more and more precious.
It is said that it is enough to admire the first “smile” of the sun of the new year to propitiate your future. Or rather, this is what the people of Otranto (the ancient Hidruntum) say with conviction. For them, moreover, it should not be difficult to enjoy the first sunbeams: this little town of Salento, is, in fact, the most eastern place of Italy (seeing any map of the Mediterranean it can be seen that the opposing sides are approaching the Adriatic exactly the 40th parallel) and therefore it’s there where the dawn first appears. And it is so every day! But the dawn of January 1 is unique in the whole year, and then if you admire it you will be lucky, more than eating lentils. So many are those who meet in Punta Palascia (Capo d’Otranto, the most eastern place), near the old lighthouse, to toast for the second time after the “cin cin” by midnight, while the sun rises from the sea. And you can make a wish, because every opportunity is good. The New Year’s day in Salento is rooted in this tradition and the the show is so beautiful that it appears unreal. The most authentic souvenirs, once back at home, are only those images that remain in your memory. Those games of colours and transpariencies, which filter out waves and light up the dark sky. Those veiled contours of the mountains of Albany, which are slowly discovered, almost to embrace like if there was the sea. Already this can be enough to choose Otranto as the privileged destination for the next New year’s eve holiday. But we are only at the start. Left behind the noise and smells of lovely beaches, Otranto is ideal for a relaxing holyday among nature, art and culture. Of course you must enjoy the sea: you can find welcoming bays, with beaches made up with fine sand, caves. You can choose to go to lowlands or to vertiginous peaks. Here you will find “Porto Badisco”, a miniature of a fjord surrounded by figs from India and spots of mirtus from Salento, where, according to the Virgilian history of Eneide, Enea landed with Acate and his other companions. Then you can go through the narrow paved in stones alleys that lap the white houses in the shade. You walk looking at the sky you above attracted by a door frame or the decoration of a palace, which remind the magnificence of the past. And you arrive at the Cathedral, “la Signora d’Otranto” as they like to call it around here. It was built in Romanesque-Gothic style, with Renaissance “rose windows” and a Baroque portal. When you are inside it you are astonished in front of the mosaic by Pantaleone, composed with polychrome tiles of the twelfth century, the greatest in all western countries (it is one thousand square metres large). It represents the life tree in its completeness between good and evil. From the cathedral to another wonder: the imposing castle with a pentagonal plant, built by the Byzantines. Outside the city walls, instead, you can go to the discovery of dolmens and menhirs. There is a high concentration of them, equal only to that of some places in Britain. In Giurdiniano, in the town square, there is the menhir of San Vincenzo, the most visited by tourists, and it is also the only one that has retained its original aspect. Also reported by maps, the dolmen of “Scusi”, in Minervino, the first Italian dolmen to be recorded in the second half of the 19th century. Its particularity is given by its perfect alignment to the “solstitial axis”. Finally you cannot miss “Il letto della Vecchia”, a place rich with mysteries and anecdotes. Large blocks of stones, with a polished surface, emerge from the soil and seem silent sentinels among the olive trees, whose fruits always make this land more and more precious.
Atttribuzione
