Il Bacaro Restaurant, Lecce / Ресторан Il Bacaro, Лечче

The restaurant and steakhouse Il Bacaro is mostly famous for its foreign meat dishes like Brazilian picanha or Argentina and USA Angus, but I would say that this place has the biggest and fullest menu I have ever seen. Really, from all kinds of meat and fish to pasta and risottos, both traditional and exotic, with a great choice of starters, side dishes and desserts, and wine menu that includes the best Italian wines and many international ones, all this makes you want to come back here again and again 🙂

La Ficarigna Restaurant, Specchia / Ресторан La Ficarigna, Спеккья

Given the numerous messages I have received for advising this restaurant, I thought it was worth to bring it up in the blog posts. I am happy you liked so much this restaurant and I totally agree with you that it can be considered one of the best restaurants of Salento and Apulia.

pasta flambe preparation

Great characteristic restaurant, beautiful interior (there is also outside summer space), excellent service, but the thing which attracts me the most here is the menu, their sophisticated cuisine.

I have been to this restaurant several times, so I tried different things, and I can tell without doubt that everything is very tasty here… My favorites are: their specialty ‘pasta flambe’ (pasta flambata in una ruota di grana), which is not only a meal, but also a show, as they make it in front of your table.  And one more must-try dish is prawns flambeed in brandy, served still with the fire on them – this one won’t leave anybody indifferent.

Il Baccante wine shop bar, Gallipoli / Винный бар Il Baccante, Галлиполи

An accidental find while having a walk along the main avenue of Gallipoli, wine bar Il Baccante surprised me with its welcoming atmosphere. In a search of a lovely place, where it is possible to listen to live music and drink a cocktail or a good wine, we came across this wine bar, which immediately gave a nice impression. Its interior is made in winery style, it seemed that we entered a wine cellar, with wooden shelves all full of different kind of wines. There is a bar at the entrance and the tables around and behind it. The atmosphere invites you to relax with the dim lights inside.

Cadillac Restaurant and Pizza, Casarano / Казарано

grilled squid

Casarano is a little bit underestimated town in my opinion, of course it is not near the sea, and it is also quite small, but what I like about it is that it has almost a big city life, what I really want to say is that Casarano is very alive, in any season there are a lot of people in the streets, it has nice centre where you can find everything from hypermarket to cinema, with a lot of shops of any kind (there is a big choice for shopping here, by the way Desigual have just recently opened their store (really nice one) in the centre of Casarano), and of course with lots of cafes, bars and restaurants. Among the bars, restaurants and pizzerias with a good quality-price ratio there are Enjoy, Chaplin pub with karaoke, Oste Pazzo, Le Parmente (oyster bar, which also deserves a separate post), but Cadillac Restaurant & Pizza surely deserves a special word…

Galatina and Castle of Corigliano / Галатина и замок в Корильяно д’Отранто

the castle

Corigliano d’Otranto is mostly known for its Castello de’ Monti, which is an amazing example of medieval military and feudal architecture, the castle was totally renovated and expanded between 1514 and 1519 by Giovan Battista de’ Monti in order to correspond to war situation and military arts of that times. It is entirely surrounded by the moat and has a square form with round towers on each of 4 corners. The facade and the entrance were subsequently embellished in baroque style by the duke Francesco Trane, who became the new owner of the castle in the middle of 1600. Nowadays this castle is possible not only to visit, but also to dine and have a drink on the top of it in the evening, enjoying the beautiful view and the unreal magic atmosphere of this fascinating place full of history, culture and art, where you can easily imagine how was the life of knights and dames centuries ago. I encourage everybody to have such a wonderful experience.

Trattoria Tatanka and sea caves near Leuca / Траттория Tatanka и морские пещеры возле Леуки

Trattoria Tatanka is situated near Santa Maria di Leuca, coastal road Gallipoli-Leuca. It has a summer terrace with magnificent peaceful panorama of the sea (the part of the sea coast full of sea caves and yachts), and somehow I always feel like a heroine of the movie there:) (I don’t know why, but this is the association I have about Tatanka, and maybe that’s why I like it so much, I mean there are not so many places that make you feel like you are in the film:))

Cotriero near Lido Pizzo/ Cotriero возле Lido Pizzo

Cotriero is a beach during the day, where you can rent sunbeds, deckchairs and umbrellas in an oasis of peace and colors, with the kitchen open from 12:30 to 17:00. There is also a possibility to take tasty and varied aperitif from 18:30 to 20:00 in front of a beautiful sunset…

Lounge-bar Solatio / Лаунж-бар Solatio

near the sea

Solatio is located in the charming area of Torre Suda (Marina di Racale). During the day it is a solarium, an ideal place to spend the hottest hours of the day, and in the evening it becomes very elegant and refined cocktail bar.

Wines of Salento / Вина Саленто

Wines of Salento and Apulia are among the best ones in Italy, and as I’ve mentioned here Apulia has been chosen as one of the top ten wine destinations in the world in 2013. And you can feel it immediately when you come to Salento, as you can see so many vineyards everywhere, there is a winery almost in every town of Salento, and also almost every second family produces wine (really good one) at home for their pleasure as a hobby, almost all the masserias have their own wine, and also many restaurants offer homemade wine (vino della casa).

Trattoria Le Fontanelle, Gallipoli / Галлиполи

some members of the family owning Le Fontanelle

Trattoria Le Fontanelle is a restaurant where all the meals are based on seafood and fish. And if you want to eat the most fresh seafood for prices a little bit lower than average, you should come here. All the personnel of this restaurant are the members of family, from chef to fishers (so the lower prices come from this, as they don’t have to buy seafood and fish), and everything you will eat here has been caught the same day you come.