Bari, Polignano, Castellana Grotte, Alberobello, Taranto, Corfù, Benitses
This itinerary was conceived to satisfy the legitimate desire to travel and to get to know each other. In order for the travel to be an inclusive and stimulating experience and for us to enjoy its magic to the full, we have designed a path that is as free from architectural barriers, but rich in cultural stimuli and scenic beauty. Read more “Travel without Limits”
Corfu: Benitses, Kanoni, Kassiopi, Palaiokastritsa, Kalami.
The island of Corfu, which has always attracted many travelers due to its natural and artistic beauties, is also one of the most appreciated and described islands by writers. Authors have written a lot on this beautiful Greek island, from Homer – and the identification of Corfu with Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians −, Boccaccio and Shakespeare – who imagined it as the setting of The Tempest – to the twentieth-century writers Cecchi, Romano and Mario Praz, to name but a few. In particular, the brothers Gerald and Lawrence Durrell, who had moved from England to Corfu in 1935, were enchanted by it. The youngest, Gerald, who would have become a renowned naturalist, set a successful book on the island: My Family and other Animals. This novel has been the basis for a TV series recently, which has been acclaimed by the audience and critics. Lawrence, the eldest brother, an internationally renowned writer and poet, made Corfu the protagonist of some of his best known literary masterpieces, like Prospero’s Cell. A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra (Corfu) and The Greek Islands. The beauty of Corfu impressed also the famous American writer Henry Miller, who visited Lawrence Durrell on the island in 1939. The reminiscences of that experience, which led the author to travel all over Greece for nine months, gave birth to his book The Colossus of Maroussi, a sort of travel journal. Read more “The Writers’ Island”
ITINERARY OF MYTHS AND HEROES
Canosa, Ruvo, Bari, Egnazia, Gravina, Altamura, Taranto, Corfù, Lefkada, Itaca
Itinerary of Puglia
Itinerary of the Ionian Islands
The Itinerary of myths and heroes is a journey that will guide the traveler or reader through the archaeological areas of Puglia, along the Appian Way and its deviationes, between mythological tale and history, following the historical writings of famous authors from the past such as Orazio as well as prestigious contemporary writers like Paolo Rumiz; these travellers have crossed and described this Way. Read more “Itinerary Of Myths And Heroes”
Alberobello, Brindisi, Corfu, Lefkada, Ithaca, Cephalonia, Zakynthos.
In the 1970s, the British poet and writer Lawrence Durrell wrote The Greek Islands, the book on which this itinerary is grounded. It has never been translated into Italian in full, despite the awards won and its publishing success. It is not a common guidebook, but as «The Times» reviewers pointed out, it is a valuable volume, almost as one of the illuminated codices in the Patmos Monastery. It is a travel book written by a traveler who had just lived on the Greek islands and drawn inspiration for some of his literary masterpieces, Bitter Lemons and Prospero’s Cell. These texts are both a base for The Greek Islands, where the historical, artistic, mythological and sociological in-depth analysis of the classical Greek world and the modern age, along with clear and ironical writing, contributes to make it an ideal means of acquiring a special knowledge of the Greek islands today. It is a book conceived and written, as the author states, to answer the main questions the travelers may ask themselves when sailing from one Greek island to another: what would I have been glad to know about the island I reached? And what would I feel sorry to have missed while I was there? Read more “The Ionian Islands in Lawrence Durrell’s eyes”
Bari, Polignano, Taranto, Gravina, Massafra, Alberobello, and Martina Franca
The itinerary “eminent author reports” winds its way through some of the most beautiful Apulian sites, which can be discovered by the traveler through the words and texts by great twentieth-century writers, poets, and documentary film directors. Documentaries and eminent author reports will accompany the reader or tourist across the towns in the land of Bari and Taranto, with reference to a period when the region was not known to the general public as a tourist destination yet and few people knew the secrets of its beauty and history. It is sometimes a journey back in time, made to explore those Apulian country areas where peasants and day laborers lived in conditions of severe poverty up to fifty years ago, and hamlets and villages where totally left out of modernization and economic growth. Read more “Eminent Author Reports”
Bari, Alberobello, Massafra, Taranto.
Pier Paolo Pasolini went on a journey across Puglia in 1951 and there he wrote a report, published in the Roman newspaper Il Quotidiano in the same year. A more structured publishing project, Le Puglie per il viaggiatore incantato, left unfinished, should have arisen from the notes kept during the journey, which led the writer from Bari to Lower Salento.
In this itinerary we suggest the traveler play the role of a modern and enchanted flâneur and penetrate the streets of Apulian towns, as Pier Paolo Pasolini did in 1951 when he got to Bari by train, a town that was “sconosciuta, distesa contro il mare”. Read more “An Itinerary for Enchanted Travelers”
Ruvo, Canosa, Molfetta, Bari, Taranto, Corfu, Lefkada.
This itinerary was conceived as a journey across Italy and Greece during the evocative Catholic and Orthodox Easter celebrations. The journey, which develops in Ruvo di Puglia, Canosa, Molfetta, Bari, and Taranto and, in the Ionian Islands – Corfu and Lefkada – will allow the traveler to come into contact with colored processions, Passion plays, culinary customs and old ritual traditions, often between religion, folklore and apotropaic beliefs.
The guides through this itinerary will be scholars, anthropologists, and writers who have been deeply interested in these popular culture events for many decades. Read more “The Passion Itinerary”
Bari, Corfu: Pontikonisi, Benitses, Ithaca:Vathy, Anogi
This itinerary suggests a journey across Puglia and Ionian Greece following in the footsteps of Lalla Romano and Emilio Cecchi. The title is derived from Cecchi’s travel journal Et in Arcadia ego and Vincenzo Consolo’s essay on Lalla Romano Et in Arcadia Lalla.
In Spring 1934 Cecchi had traveled with his son across the Ionian Islands and the Peloponnese, reaching Crete. That experience gave birth to a book published in 1936, whose single chapters had already been published as reportage articles. Read more “The routes to Arcadia”
Corfu: Mount Pantokrator, Kanoni, Benitses, Palaiokastritsa, Lakones, Agia Kyriaki, Evropouloi.
In this itinerary we suggest the traveler discover the beauties of Corfu, ideally walking next to Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, who deeply loved Greece, especially this island where she spent long holidays in search of that inner peace she seemed to miss at the imperial court of Vienna. Read more “Walking with Sisi”
Canosa, Molfetta, Bari, Mottola, Corfu, Kassiopi.
In this itinerary the traveler is invited to ideally hold the pilgrim’s staff or, more secularly, to become a wayfarer, in order to go along the Apulian stretch of the road known as Via Francigena in the South or Via Sacra Longobardorum, rich in history, art and culture. Following the route of an old Roman consular road never completely abandoned, the Via Appia-Traiana, we will get to the region’s port towns, which have always been key embarkation points for pilgrims, Crusaders, Templars or merchants who wanted to reach the fabulous East over the Middle Ages. Following in their footsteps and guided by their stories and travel journals, we will finally head for the Ionian Islands, a nearly necessary step for people who once sailed towards or from the Holy Land or the rich eastern markets. Read more “The Pilgrim’s Tales”