Galatina

Galatina is settled at the center of Salento(south of Italy-region of Puglia), 20 km south from Lecce. This town is a very nice place to see with his fabulous architecture and monuments and the old and fascinating historic center. It is a very old town full of history and baroque vestiges. The foundation of the town goes back to Greek times, and as shown by the little owl still represented in the coat-of-arms, a bird sacred to goddess Minerva, who was especially worshipped in the area of Magna Graecia, called Japigia. The town maintained Greek traditions, religious rites and dialect until very recent centuries. The name is recorded for the first time in a manuscript of 1188, where the name of "St. Peter in Galatina" is mentioned; actually, an undocumented tradition tells of the evangelisation of the local people made by St Peter on his journey from Anthiochia to Rome, after which the name was for many centuries "San Pietro in Galatina", and was changed back to the Hellenic original only in 1861. There are many churches of high artistic value, among which, the Basilic of “Santa Caterina d’ Alessandria” with its precious cycle of paintings; dates back to XIV century, today is considered a national monument (since 1886) of priceless artistic and historical value. To remember is also the “Pupa”, a fountain in local limestone, settled at the centre of the town. Near here, in the Saint Peter Square, there is another very ancient church, known as “Chiesa Madre”. This church, is a very important example of Baroque style in Salento, is devoted to St Peter and Paul, patron saints of the city (they both are celebrated on June 28, 29, 30). In these days my town become full of colours and parfums, there are a lot of stalls and concerts. In these days all those who love folklore can discover and appreciate customs and traditions such as the Tarantism phenomenon and its popular dance “Pizzica” or “Tarantella” represented in many occasions but particularly in this kind of festivities. Galatina is the centre of this phenomenon cause of the small church of St. Paul. According to the tradition, inside the chapel of this church there was a well (walled today for higienical reasons) whose water was believed to heal those who had been bitten by "Tarantula" spider, undeservedly ill-famed since it was believed that its bite caused an histeriac condition that could be relied with a magical dance (known as the tarantella). The "tarantati" used to drink the water of the well and then sick, and this was belied as a sign of healing, so every year afterwards they used to come back to give thanks and performed the ritual dances. Nowadays in the summer there is a sort of touring festival that pass by Galatina, like in many other towns of the province, and ends in the last days of August in Melpignano (another small town of Salento) with a big concert. This event, existing from about 10 years, is called Night of taranta cause in the whole nigth there are a lot of musician that alternate with orchestra of pizzica; This orchestra can be considered an extraordinary heritage of the Salento and contributes to the dissemination of popular musical culture and to the promotion of the Grecia Salentina like a surging tourist area. Galatina is also known like the “city of wine”. For centuries, wine was made here using a local grape variety called Negramaro. In the past couple of decades, the wine industry here has been revamped, mostly thanks to the imported Chardonnay grapevines, which have adapted splendidly to the climate of this land and have led to great results. This has encouraged a true wine renaissance in the lovely countryside of Galatina and has affected also the production of traditional reds and rosés. Wine of course is linked to the traditional local gastronomy that is very rich! Typical food are for example the “schiacciata” that is a pita-like pocket bread, or the “Puccia” and the “Pizzo”, the first with olives and the other with tomato and onion pieces added to the dough. Also “Friselle” , hard bagel sized rings made with either wheat or whole grain barley flour, are one of the most sold items: softened in water they’re great to serve a tomato salad on. Very good is the fresh pasta (and particularly “orecchiette” the classic local pasta, ”cavatelli”, ”minchiarieddhi”, ”sagna ritorta”),"turcinieddhri", roulades of lamb entrails cooked on an open fire, the "monicceddhre" earth snails lightly fried but also the "pupiddhi”, small fishes fried and mixed with bread crumbs and marinated in vinegar, mussels excellent with spaghetti. Among the desserts famous are the "mustazzoli" biscuits covered in softened chocolate with vincotto and rum, the "taralli" a sweet dough covered in white icing; "kupeta" a cup of almonds and honey, the "cotognata" candied quince jam is a speciality typical of Lecce and In the time of festivities there are many others typical food like “carteddhate” and “porceddhuzzi” for Cristhmas and “pasta di mandorla” for eastern...