Italie
In the sun-baked limestone heel of Italy's boot, where the Adriatic and Ionian seas are separated by a narrow peninsula of olive groves and Baroque architecture, the small city of Galatina harbours one of southern Italy's most astonishing artistic treasures — and one of its most mystifying folk traditions. This quiet Puglian town of 27,000, located 20 kilometres south of Lecce in the Salento region, would be noteworthy for its streetscape alone: palazzi of honey-coloured tufa stone, wrought-iron balconies draped with drying peppers, and piazzas where elderly men play cards beneath the shade of ancient fig trees. But it is what lies inside the Basilica di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria that elevates Galatina from charming to extraordinary.
The Basilica, a 14th-century Franciscan church, contains the most extensive cycle of medieval frescoes in southern Italy outside of Assisi — and some art historians argue they rival the Giotto cycle in narrative power if not in technical refinement. Covering every surface of the nave, aisles, and chapels, the paintings depict scenes from Genesis, the Apocalypse, and the life of Saint Catherine with a vivid, almost comic-book energy: demons are green and grimacing, saints glow with golden haloes, and the damned tumble into hell with expressions of authentic terror. The frescoes were commissioned by the Orsini del Balzo family, the feudal lords of Galatina, and completed between 1391 and 1420 — making them contemporaries of the early Renaissance in Florence, yet stylistically rooted in a Byzantine-Gothic tradition unique to the Salento.
Galatina is also the historical centre of tarantismo — the ecstatic dancing ritual once performed to cure the bite of the tarantula spider. For centuries, women (and occasionally men) who had been bitten — or who claimed to have been bitten, the medical evidence being secondary to the social and psychological function of the rite — would dance for hours or days to the frantic rhythm of the pizzica, accompanied by tambourines and violins, until the "poison" was purged from their bodies. The chapel of Saint Paul in Galatina was the pilgrimage destination for tarantate, and the last documented cases of the ritual occurred as recently as the 1960s. Today the pizzica lives on as the signature folk music and dance of the Salento, performed at the annual Notte della Taranta festival that draws hundreds of thousands to the region each August.
The cuisine of Galatina and the broader Salento is the essence of cucina povera elevated to art. Rustico leccese — a flaky pastry pocket filled with bechamel, mozzarella, and tomato — is the region's beloved street snack. Ciceri e tria, a dish of chickpeas and fried pasta ribbons, traces its lineage to ancient Rome. The pasticciotto, a shortcrust pastry filled with custard cream and baked to golden perfection, is the breakfast of choice throughout the Salento and has inspired a near-religious devotion among locals. The wines of the region — primitivo and negroamaro — are bold, sun-drenched reds that complement the robust flavours of the local kitchen.
Galatina is visited by Tauck on Puglia and southern Italy itineraries as an excursion from Adriatic cruise ports. The ideal visiting season is April through June and September through October, when the fierce Salento summer heat has moderated and the olive groves, vineyards, and Baroque streetscapes are bathed in the warm, lateral light that makes Puglia one of Italy's most photogenic regions.