EDITORIAL
if the “Notte della Taranta” attracts 130,000 people… by Flavia Pankiewicz
T
he New York Times, in the travel section of the 8th August issue dedicated a wide-ranging article to the city of Lecce (“36 hours in Lecce”), written by Seth Sherwood. The next day my e-mail box began to fill up with e-mails from my friends in New York to tell me: “Look! Your town is in the New York Times!”. The thorough reporting by Sherwood, a travel journalist based in Paris, didn’t leave anything off his list of musts to be experienced in the “Florence of the South”, from the Roman amphitheater to Santa Croce, from the Cathedral to the Provincial Museum, from ciceri e tria to the pasticciotto and the iced coffee with almond milk, and even a dive in the sea off San Cataldo. His round-up of the range of pleasures to be had in the heel of Italy puts yet another seal (and a seal of world-recognized authority) to the lucky trend that has crowned Salento and Puglia as one of the top tourist destinations in the world. There are still some problems but we are still on the crest of the wave. An unthinkable achievement until about a few decades ago, which should spur our structures and all the facilities connected with tourism into making a definitive leap in quality.
The other event which must be marked up is that of the continuing success of the “Notte della Taranta” in Melpignano, which this year was entrusted to Maestro Giovanni Sollima. 130,000 spectators, an immense crowd that on the 24th August listened and danced to the spider’s rhythms all night. There were also some illustrious presences, beginning with the “queen”; the English actress Helen Mirren, with her husband, the American movie director Taylor Hackford (to be clear the director of unforgettable films such as An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds, Devil’s Advocate). Mirren and Hackford have been spending time in Salento in their buen retiro for a good while now, after buying and restoring a masseria near Tiggiano, where they enjoy extended vacations.
In an Italy suffering badly from the crisis which has reached all sectors, especially in the South, tourism in Puglia, particularly foreign tourism, is going in the opposite direction; it’s on the up. This has been confirmed by a survey published in August in Il Sole 24 ore, according to which the number of foreign tourists in the South reached a record low in comparison with the rest of Italy while “Puglia is constantly on the increase for tourism, particularly for foreign tourism. It’s a constant growth over the years. Including this year”, as the Regional Councillor for Tourism in Puglia, Silvia Godelli, affirms.
Something to think about in these September days, with the numbers on the beaches already thinning, despite the still wonderful weather and the persistent problem of extending the season up for discussion yet again.
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