A Week in the Salento, Autumn 2026
From 26 September to 3 October 2026, I was the photography tutor on a Flavours Holidays photography holiday in the Salento, the southern tip of Puglia. Five photographers joined me. We stayed at Palazzo Garzia in the centre of Maglie and spent our days in Maglie, Otranto, Gallipoli and Lecce. The gallery below holds 79 of my photographs from the week.
Palazzo Garzia and Maglie
Palazzo Garzia was home for the week. The rooms are spacious and beautifully equipped; the large central courtyard is the building's heart, and the outdoor pool earned its keep on warmer afternoons.
Many of the photographs here were taken a short walk from the front door. Pale limestone, deep doorways, arcades, and hard afternoon shadow make it a natural town for black and white.
Otranto
Otranto sits on the Adriatic close to Italy's easternmost point. What stays with me is the mix. Narrow cobbled streets and alleys open without warning onto views across the sea, and the water below the town walls runs from pale turquoise to deep blue within a few metres. Inside the cathedral, the twelfth-century mosaic floor runs the length of the nave, and the group spent as long looking down as looking up.
Gallipoli
The old town of Gallipoli stands on an island on the Ionian coast, joined to the mainland by a bridge. We stayed on for sunset, and it was the highlight of the visit. The sun dropped behind a bank of clouds above the lighthouse on the Isola di Sant'Andrea, and the sea turned silver, then gold.
Lecce
Lecce is known as the Florence of the south. Soft local limestone carves like wood, and the cathedral and churches are covered in ornament on a scale hard to take in from the pavement.
Venetian merchants also traded here, and in 1543 their community built the small church of San Marco beside the Sedile in Piazza Sant’Oronzo. The Roman amphitheatre lies a few steps away.
Gallery
Select any photograph to enlarge it.
