B&B Il Geco is the ideal base to explore Salento. Located just 3 km from the town center of Gallipoli, it enjoys direct access to a comfortable and smooth provincial road that will allow you to reach the village in just 3 minutes.
Gallipoli will naturally be your home. Also known as the “Pearl of the Ionian Sea”, Gallipoli is famous for its crystal-clear sea but also for its historic village rich in Baroque-style buildings: the Old Town stands on an island connected by a bridge, and here you can visit a millennial castle whose last renovation dates back to the Byzantine era, 16 century-old churches, numerous monuments, seventeenth-century palaces in Baroque style, all enclosed by an imposing city wall that surrounds the entire historic village. Also very famous in Gallipoli is the excellent cuisine offered in its refined restaurants and characteristic trattorias where you can taste the flavors of our sea and our land. Finally, Gallipoli is also famous for its nightlife venues and discos… in short, Gallipoli is suitable for everyone.
If you have a few more days available, we definitely suggest you visit Lecce (about 40 km from our structure, i.e. half an hour by car). Often referred to as the “Florence of the South” for the richness and variety of its historic buildings in Baroque style, the classic tour starts from Porta Rudiae and ends in Piazza Mazzini: in just over one km, entirely pedestrianized, you will be literally bombarded by the magnificence of precious architectural jewels, some even dating back to Roman times, which make this small city unique.
If after these two proposals you are still not satisfied with artistic beauties we suggest you take a trip to Galatina (22 km from B&B), and why not to Nardò (20 km.) and Galatone (13 km.). In reality then, wandering around Salento you will discover that even the smallest villages often guard their own historical treasures.
Very interesting, on the Adriatic side, is the town of Otranto (just under 50 km from our structure, 45 minutes by car). In many ways comparable to Gallipoli, Otranto is the easternmost municipality in Italy and is also very rich in important historical evidence, not least the Cathedral dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata, famous for preserving inside it an enormous mosaic made between 1163 and 1165 by the monk Pantaleone and which represents a majestic Tree of Life. In the cathedral are also preserved the relics, dating back to 1480, of the Martyrs of Otranto.
If you want to reach the southernmost point of Puglia, we suggest a trip to Santa Maria di Leuca (48 km away), where you can admire, from the square of the second highest lighthouse in Europe, a splendid panorama and perhaps manage to see, on clearer days, the mountains of Albania on the other side of the Mediterranean.
In Salento there are also interesting places from a naturalistic point of view, but we cannot talk about everything here: come and visit us and we will be happy to suggest the most interesting destinations for you.