Limpid water, crystal-clear, with nuances of blues and greens, the Baroque style in creamy stone, these have made the city of Lecce and the sea of Salento, Apulia, famous. But Salento is more,...much more.

A new experience, for the merely curious, or something more specific for the scholar, hidden, unexpected treasures in a land that is deceptively tranquil. The freedom to explore any time of year, friendly people and the local cooking ...

Already inhabited in prehistory the signs of early human presence are everywhere: neolithic man's rock-paintings in Porto Badisco (later a landing-place for Homer's Enea), dolmen and menhir, as well as imposing fortifications from the Bronze Age, Messapic ruins in Roca.

And the heart of Salento, an area of nine Greek villages, where a dialect of Griko is still spoken, now thankfully revalued and preserved. The greek rites, epigraphs, crypts and churches with frescos, all recall this past. The dry-stone dwellings with a communal court yard, the food, music and literature are a live and vital presence.

If this mole of Europe in the Med has, on the one hand, given refuge to many peoples, it has in the past had to defend itself, too, from many, from Illyrian pirates, to Saracen rauders. Hence the diverse defence systems, even to subterranean tunnels. In fact the underground is full, oil-presses are common as well as crypts, and caves creating a mystical, almost secret world.

Outside again, one is immersed in a silver-green land of olive groves, redolent of still uncontaminated nature, protected areas, lakes, copses and coastal dunes, the habitat of herons, ducks, falcons and even the kingfisher. For whose care and succour there is, in fact, set aside a part of the Natural History Museum of Calimera (one of the nine villages) which has some fine specimens of birds and fossils.

We have not mentioned what we consider already well-known. The abundance of Baroque architecture and the artistry of papier machŽ, wrought iron and of course the ever present terracotta.

We invite you to pass a few days in this land, simple and welcoming, and in any case unforgettable.

Archeology, architecture, music and gastronomy, arts and crafts and cultural exhibihons, a clean environment and the softest of tongues. Atlante can help you discover all this in a series of guided tours in the Hellenic and Salentine areas. For schools the didactic element is carefully thought out. Groups who may want to arrive by train can he met, have their stay organized, and be accompanied again to Lecce station at the end of their visit. And then boat trips-horse drawn traps-perhaps a visit to Corfù?