The “tube” does not keep tourists away either in high or low season. The landing in Salento – 8 meters deep with a microtunnel under the beach of San Foca, in the Melendugno area – of the Tap pipeline does not stop tourists. It certainly does not stop those attracted by the sea – last summer almost 500,000 visitors were registered – so much so that, thanks to the resulting income, the bet is now to intercept them all year round, thanks to culture and archeology.
Spearhead
The spearhead of this Salento municipality – just over 10,000 inhabitants, a few kilometers north of Otranto and almost 20 from Lecce – is in fact, together with the marinas, the archaeological settlement of Roca Vecchia, from the Messapian age, which overlooks on the coast, and which has inside the “Grotta Poesia Grande”, defined by the National Geographic as “among the top 10 most beautiful natural pools in the world“, and which was visited, even last summer, by 200 thousand tourists who have paid the entrance ticket in the area.
Blue Flag 2021
Therefore, there is no backlash for Melendugno’s summer tourism among beautiful beaches, fine sand, crystal clear sea, cliffs and all its marinas (Roca, San Foca Nord / Centro / Torre Specchia, Torre Sant’Andrea and Torre dell’Orso) also decorated in the 2021 from the Blue Flag. The goal is now to direct other tourists towards the hinterland in the low season, until late spring, “draining” part of those 72,000 arrivals and 471,000 presences officially registered, in 2021, by the regional tourism observatory , and attracted by these marinas that have become one of the 20 top destinations in Puglia.
Promotional program
For this purpose, the municipal administration has developed a program that provides discount vouchers of 10 euros per day, for at least 2 people and for two nights – discounts then reimbursed to tour operators – as well as free visits to the cultural heritage of the area. “Our target – explains Roberto Rollo, municipal councilor delegated to cultural tourism and the archaeological area – are the families to whom we offer these incentives made possible by the summer flows that give us resources to finance the winter ones”.
Five itineraries
This way, tourists will be able to get to know the Melendugno area by following 5 different itineraries illustrated on www.rocaegrottedellapoesia.it. From the best known, the archaeological area of Roca Vecchia defined by the historian Cosimo Pagliara, who discovered the Grotta della Poesia, “the largest European archaeological park of the Middle Bronze Age”, (XVII-XIV century BC), with animations virtual created by the Cetma Research Center of Brindisi, in the pine forest of Torre dell’Orso of 60 hectares. From the Renaissance village of Roca Nuova to the semi-underground oil mills to the D’Amelj palace and the San Niceta abbey. All complementary sites to seaside destinations.