Your staying in the B&B Guest House La Tana del Riccio will allow you to enjoy and learn from the Salento lifestyle, land of great culture and party time. The main square in Vaste itself, close to the Vacation House, is often used for art festivals, by musical bands, classic or jazz concerts.
The summer nights in Salento are always offering fireworks in one or more competing villages. Those are signaling an event with an official theme (often related to local produces but also arts, night walks touring the baroque churches and palaces, theater, opera, even a donkey race!) but in reality is an excuse for great food sampling and dancing the “pizzica“.
The event calendar is thick, particularly in the core of the summer, and among the many noteworthy are the Mercatino del Gusto (Taste Market) in Maglie and the holy procession in the sea in Castro and Sant’Oronzo celebration in Lecce. For those with a green thumb or simply passion for botanics, La Cutura is not only a renowned restaurant but also the most important cactus collection within glass houses in Europe.
During your staying in Salento you will learn about the mysteries of “pizzica“. The tradition tells that a spider (the “Taranta“) would bite the women while harvesting wheat, and its poison would induce horrible pain and irrational behavior, with the only possible cure being a night long frantic dancing to an obsessive and repetitive music.
The poisonous beast, the bite, the sickness and the exorcism are all linked to the veneration of San Paul who saved himself for a snake bite and is the patron and protector of the “tarantate” which would go to the church of San Peter and Paul in Galatina to be cured thru exorcism: this event is still nowadays celebrated in Galatina on S.Peter and Paul day in late June.
Several night events are symbolically related to this tradition, the most important one, famous at National level, is La Notte della Taranta in Melpignano, toward the end of August.
The most spectacular are:
- La Notte della Taranta – Festival and concert in Melpignano (august)
- Festa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo – in Galatina (june); the exorcism of the “tarantate” is recalled through dances
- Festival Salento Negroamaro – In Lecce
- Alba dei Popoli – New Year’s Eve in Otranto
- Carnevale – Carnival in Gallipoli
- Focara di Sant’Antonio in Novoli
- Canti della Passione – Easter – Grecia Salentina
- Festa di San Rocco – The “Swards dance” in Torre Paduli (august)
- Festa “Te lu mieru” – Wine is offered to tourists with bread and vegetables. In Carpignano Salentino, on september’s frist sunday