This area is made up of 11 municipalities which, despite their small dimensions, retain all their cultural richness and variety: Calimera (which in Greek means Buongiorno), Carpignano Salentino, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d' Otranto, Cutrufiano, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia and Zollino. This territory is the result of centuries of cultural overlap, which has altered some of the original elements such as Griko: a Greek language that was once spoken in much of the Salentine peninsula and which is still spoken by the elderly today.
There are many traditions linked to the Magna Graecia that populate this piece of land, such as the propitiatory ritual of fertility that saw the protagonists all those women who could not get pregnant. It took place in Martano in the small church of San Vito, where there is still present today a stone of prehistoric epoch - called "petra de Santu Vitu" - with a hole in the center, a forum that magically allowed anyone to cross it, the tradition wants that passing through all problems of fertility were resolved.
Even today, Easter's Day in Martano is still the day of this ritual.
Staying on the subject of traditions, it is impossible not to mention the Festival of Popular Music "La Notte della Taranta", born in 1998 and literally exploded internationally.
This festival is not only about the final concert of Melpignano, but it presents many other different evenings, with different groups of folk music from Salento in the other countries of Greece Salentina.
Moreover, this almost magical place that will allow visitors to experience ancient times is a land where the cuisine has also been influenced by the many people who have inhabited it, starting with the Arabs, the Byzantines, the French and finally the Spaniards, who have enriched it, but also modified the flavors and smells of this humble cuisine.
And it is precisely the flavours and scents that recall Greece with which this land shares not only the tongue but also the ingredients: olive oil, durum wheat, cheese and fresh vegetables.
A cuisine made from simple flavours, strong flavors, centuries-old recipes, but at the same time healthy and nutritious.
It is precisely in this area located in the inland of Salento that the cuisine made of pots and pans of earthenware and "tajèddhe", preserves intact the traits of a peasant civilization.
But what is it absolutely necessary to eat if you choose to visit the Salentine Greeks??
Surely "ciceri e trìa", where the word "trìa" comes from the Arabic word "itriya" which means fried pasta and "ciceri" which means chickpeas. This is an unmistakable dish, with a peasant taste and an ancient flavour.
But typical of the place is certainly the crushed wheat "Sitàri stompao", used in ancient times when peasants could not go to the mills were forced to reuse ancient stone mortars, pouring grains of wheat and sifting them to get a flour to make the dough.
Calò ampetìto!!