35 km 💪👣
A beautiful and highly various stage today! We were accompanied along the way by Adriano and Salvatore of the local amateur sports association for the disabled, Mollare mai ASD, and by Cannole town councillor Fabio, who dedicates his spare time to the Via Francigena: not only walking the trail but keeping it free of litter, making sure the route is well-marked, and installing benches made from used shipping pallets painted in rainbow colours. As well as informative panels explaining the many points of interest along the way, and inspirational quotes posted by the people from Mollare mai, and so the overall impression was of a well-organised and well cared-for route, similar to being on the Camino de Santiago.
The first town we came to after leaving Martano was Carpignano Salentino, where there is a Byzantine crypt, which is however undergoing restoration and closed to visitors at the moment. We were able to glimpse, through panes of glass in the pavement, an ancient underground olive press and the old city gate, dating back to the days of the Kingdom of Aragon, now well below street level. But we had only just set off, so we continued on our way.
In the next village, Serrano, we stopped to stamp our pilgrim passports in the church and then enjoyed an early lunch of local specialties in the park, including friselle, hard biscuits soaked briefly in water then topped with fresh tomato. Simple but delicious!
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| Friselle |
Christian played the accordian for us on the path through Borgo Cerreto, shortly after Serrano. Our next stop was at a historic masseria, a fortified farm complex, for a group photo shoot using the drone before continuing on our way to Palmariggi and Giurdignano.
Along the way, Salvatore had explained to me that the main industry of the Salento peninsula has always been olive oil - but until the 1930s, it was not produced for use as food, but for lamps to provide light. Olive oil from the region was considered the best quality for lighting lamps all over Europe, and was even exported to the palaces of British monarchs. Oil for burning was best made from very ripe olives, and so the fruit was left on the tree until it fell naturally to the ground - the reason why the trees were allowed to grow so tall in the region. Elsewhere they are kept short enough for the olives to be picked by hand, for eating or pressing into oil for human consumption.
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| Ancient underground olive press |
Known as the megalithic garden of Europe, Giurdignano abounds in menhirs, dolmens, and underground constructions such as devotional chapels and olive presses carved into the rock. We passed by the menhir of Saint Paul, thus named because it was converted into a devotional chapel in Christian times.
In Giurdignano we were met by the mayor and the deputy mayor, both women, who showed us a Byzantine crypt of San Salvatore, more than a thousand years old, took a group picture with us, stamped our credentials and offered us an afternoon snack at a nearby café.
From here it was a pleasant walk along the Idro, a small stream, to my lodgings in a cave at the Orto dell'Idro, an organic farm and yoga retreat centre just outside Otranto. The Romans founded the city of Hidruntum, which became Otranto, on the only river in the area; all other towns on the Salento peninsula depend on underground water resources.
After a quick shower I continued along the bank of the stream to Otranto. I paid a quick visit to the cathedral, with its 600 square metres of floor mosaics dating back to 1163 - 1165, a tree of life attempting to illustrate all of the known world at the time, including its myths and symbols as well as the human and natural worlds.
Then I joined the Road to Rome group to attend a concert in the castle, a programme of pilgrimage-related music including melodies from medieval times from various parts of the Mediterranean, performed by a trio of musicians from Bari, Monopoli and Lecce, La Cantiga de la Serena.
I ended the evening at dinner with the musicians before retiring to my cave for the night!
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