A Caper in Salento

The local press complains  on behalf of tourists visiting Lecce. Which seems strange enough - unless the city truly prefers immediate revenue at long-term cost? But the restoration of the Santa Croce basilica has overrun (we are in Italy), and it's easier to talk in terms of days than it is to report on the logistics of a complex job. But - for all the easy complaining - there's a distinct advantage in this situation. Because the restorers have come up with a canny idea. Converting their scaffolding from an obstruction into an itinerary, they are offering "open works" (cantiere aperte) to pre-booked visitors. "Take care": the Santa Croce restoration This isn't only clever PR; it represents an opportunity comparable with Vienna's exquisite baroque close-up, the Karlskirche dome . The back story is simple: in May 2011, pieces of rock crumbled from the west facade. The local stone, pietra leccese , is famously soft; the ease of sculpting which...

Perhaps you remember a scene from Homer where Odysseus is shipwrecked by Poseidon's wrath but manages to swim ashore and sleep? How he wakes up in a boutique hotel, feeling the extra glass of primitivo he drank the night before, and has to face a white-gloved waiter offering a selection of cakes? It sounds like a trick question. What links the Odyssey and modern tourism? This is the stuff of nightmares; irresolvable mental struggle. "Compare and contrast the legacy of the Trojan War with a one-week Mediterranean holiday." Yet, because the challenge seems serious, let's take it on. There is apparently nothing toungue-in-cheek about an ongoing, Italy-wide initiative called  IT.A.CÀ: migrants and travellers . Now (like Odysseus) in its tenth year of travel, this  festival del turismo responsabile hoists sail for Salento, showcasing fifty-something places, tours and events. It launches with a conference in Lecce, "Travelling to Ithaca: from mass tourism to resp...

A small but clever show made explicit a link so fundamental - and so visible - that I'd never noticed it at all. ancient rites, modern capers Spend some time in Salento, and you'll end up soon enough at one of the local festivals that take place all over this region. Towns of every size hold them year-round, though mostly in the summer. There are big annual affairs, dedicated to the patron saints; then there are ad hoc money spinners of more recent vintage, dedicated to exploiting some ingredient of the Italian culinary fantasy. Either way, there will be dancing ; and this dance will be well embedded in local festival culture. The morning after, by contrast... Might you feel obliged to do gentle penance in the soft  silenzio of a local museum? There to encounter... the kind of Grecian Urn that weighed down your school visits some time back last century. If, like me, you fell for the schoolboyish error of separating "ancient" and "popular" cultu...