The best running trails around Manduria

One of the numerous 16th-century coastal watchtowers standing here along the coast every 4 km (within sight of each other).

In some parts the sand on the trail is quite thick: if you are travelling with a very heavy bike it might be better to push it.

The Salina dei monaci of Torre Colimena is a small earthly paradise located on the Ionian coast of Salento a few kilometers from Porto Cesareo

One of the many coastal towers in the area. Among the most beautiful and imposing.

The asphalt of the coastal road is in very bad condition in places and you have to keep a close eye on it to avoid ending up in a pothole, but it's still fun, especially because there is almost no traffic, at least in winter. Short sections have been given new asphalt 👍

SALINA MONACI Salina Monaci, part of the Regional Natural Reserves of the Eastern Taranto Coast, was established in 2002 as a protected area, characterized by a salt pan no longer in use, subject to a variation in the water level and formation of extensive salt crusts in the summer season. In 1600, the area was owned by the Benedictine monks of Aversa and later passed to the Imperiali family. In the 19th century and, in particular, after the expulsion of the Bourbons, the Salina came under the control of the State Property Agency. The Salina has survived two reclamation interventions: in 1882, when Avetrana was not included in the drainage program and in the mid-twentieth century, when the intervention was limited due to the scarce economic resources allocated. In 1960 it was separated from the sea with the construction of the Salento coast road, later removed in that stretch with the establishment of the Reserves. The illustrated book "The never-ending story" by Fulvio Filo Schiavoni, a Rotarian friend, tells the story of the place, long disputed, between Manduria and Avetrana.

COLIMENA TOWER The Colimena cove was chosen as the highest lookout point by the engineer Giovanni Maria Tommaso Scala, responsible for designing new watchtowers. A small tower already existed, but for economic reasons, it was decided to preserve it and incorporate it into the base of the new one, completed in 1570. From that moment on, Torre Colimena represented a fully-fledged defense structure, with its harquebusiers, machicolations and falconate and access regulated by retractable ladders. Its garrison was entrusted to a tower keeper with the rank of corporal, accompanied by companeros with whom he monitored the horizon to promptly warn of the arrival of the enemy with alarm signals (smoke during the day, fires at night, shots from stone cannons and the sounds of the trumpet). Once the Turkish danger had subsided, in 1730, the tower passed into the custody of Giulio Briganti; in 1777 to that of the soldiers of the Invalid Regiment; in 1820 to the Customs Guards and then went through a period of abandonment, until it was entrusted in 1877 to a Brigade

A beautiful example of a medieval defensive tower on the coast of southern Italy with a museum of selected ceramics As part of the activities for the knowledge and enhancement of ancient, modern and contemporary ceramics, the National Association of Friends of Ceramics carried out research on ceramic containers for wine, in particular the Grottagliese jar. In Grottaglie the origins of the figurative art are lost in time, but it is the wine jar, called srulu in the local dialect, that characterizes the production of the last two centuries, when the wine for daily consumption was extracted from the capason in the srulu. The word srulu derives from the Latin urceolus, a diminutive of urceus, orcio, first adulterated in ursulu, then by apheresis in rsulu and finally by metathesis in srulu. probably it is an onomatopoeic voice that indicates the sound yes before when the wine is sucked out of the ceramic container SOTS I give with enthusiasm. Its shape is characterized by the ovoid body on a disc base and the wide neck esti or. the ribbon handle and the inverted nose pourer. Over time it suffers lie actions: in the nineteenth-century examples it is pot-bellied, while in those SH vi tends to lengthen gradually from 20 to 40 cm. with the ability to make it from poorly cleaned local clay and cover it with different enamels from ivory white to matte yellow. therefore from a simple, meager artifact that the figures of Grottaglie represent from embellished by short brushstrokes and with chromatic vivacity: ochre to iron yellow, from light blue to intense blue, from fat green to manganese brown; More or less bright colors, tastefully combined in a balanced and bright relationship with the base glaze. Meape covered Elumi, ilos values of ceramic production. The decorative motifs constitute the iconographic repertoire of the Grotagliese craftsmanship of the 19th and 20th centuries: from the anthropomorphic elements to the twisted, phytomorphic, landscape and geometric elements, up to the double continuous thread with daisies that always defines the limit of the artistic. It is therefore authentic folk art, expressing general feelings and views of authentic folk art, inspired by sophisticated or traditional models of thought. The more convincing the Arinium, the more authentic Tsula his language niae, the cultivated convinced". An art that every Rono or Rework Vescio Quil Sa Fire "Core in Heni's reality Well, dear friends, you know how to make exaggerations, but also joys, hopes and faith. Elio Scarciglia