Keeping inland, your tour continues towards Grottaglie, renowned for its ceramics – we are now in the province of Taranto. The geomorphology now starts changing when you start entering the Canyons of Puglia.
In the ravines if feels like a journey where time has stopped, passing through Crispiano, where, on 20th July every year, they have a summer carnival – then onto Massafra and Castellaneta, who gave its Christmas’s to Rodolfo Valentino. You then go down towards the Ionian sea and the wide beaches of Ginosa Marina.
This land, with its legends, miracles and folk rituals, is where Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed “The Gospel according to St. Matthew”, and where later Mel Gibson filmed “The Passion of Christ”.
Just into the region of Basilicata, and just over an hour’s drive from Masseria Montenapoleone, you will reach another Unesco World Heritage Site: the Sassi di Matera – with its underground dwellings – evidence of a civilization now vanished.
On the edge of the ancient region of Lucania, another unique town with a distinctive conformation is Gravina di Puglia, with the Faraualla Cave – one of the deepest in central-southern Italy with its 250- metre drop. It has an impressive and dangerous funnel-shaped entrance and many other abysses, which fueled many a folk tale.
