Santa Maria di Leuca

Santa Maria di Leuca is one of the most renowned resorts in the Mediterranean, in particular for leisure tourism, with a great many tourist complexes, splendid and colourful nineteenth-century villas and a pleasant seafront that by night explodes into animated life. But Leuca is also ‘de finibus terrae’, as the Romans defined it, with its white lighthouse whose lantern keeps watch from 150 metres above the sea, and the austerity of the fortified sanctuary with its ancient tales of pilgrimages and misadventure. Dotted with little villages, ancient historic and naturalistic testimonies, today much of the territory is protected under the aegis of the Regional Park established in 2006. Don’t miss: the organized tour by boat of the many grottoes that are only accessible from the sea, showcasing the splendid seabed.

Distance: 70 km from Lecce Time: 1 hour > national road SS 16 Maglie-Otranto > national road SS 275 Leuca