Today’s Guest Post, originally published almost three years ago, is from my lovely friend, tour partner, and Expert contributor to my book, Ylenia Sambati.

Yle and I met via fellow Italophiles and the internet over 5 years ago when the idea of offering small group tours to Italy was percolating for me. Ylenia and Puglia came across my radar, we connected, and it has been nothing but fabulous ever since!

My connection and friendship with Ylenia, as well as her partner Michele, their team, and all of the fabulous people I’ve met and worked with in Puglia, is one that I treasure. It is through them that I have come to love and appreciate all aspects of this unique region: the culture and customs, the art and history, the cuisine, the traditions…the people.

Since that first connection, I’ve visited and collaborated on 8 tours and simply cannot wait to return again in September, hopefully with YOU!

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Ylenia’s love for Puglia and the Salento sub-region of Puglia is deep and contagious. For this and many reasons, I invited Ylenia to share about her roots and passion and wanted to share it again with you…

♥ Salento – Love at First Sight in Puglia! ♥

Every time they ask me to tell about it, I need to sit down calmly to feel even in writing everything that this land  represents for me, my story, the roots, my love declared on a daily basis, the visual and poetic sense it conveys to me.

To visit Salento is to begin a deep bond that develops between the land and the Salento people, the visitor, the artist who is, more or less consciously, within each of us, its history and its past.

It’s a land characterized by simplicity in everything: in food, in human relations, in the search for the essential, in the pleasure of tradition preserved as a symbol of peasant heritage of inestimable value. In living with ease and enjoying the little things that make a day incredibly beautiful, respecting nature and the call of the sea that represents for a familiar landscape and reassuring architecture.

The deep connection in which man and nature blend comes from the fact that Salento is a strip of land bordered to the west by the Ionian Sea and on the east by the Adriatic Sea, hence the definition of land of two seas.

The sea creates a real hug in which east and west blend thus painting extraordinary scenarios, sandy dunes, an unspoiled paradise.

Here everything takes on a different shape compared to other places of Puglia. In this corner of paradise, indeed, reign peace and energy: a sense of calm and authenticity, ancestral wild places takes shape, almost from the vast expanses of the centuries-old olive trees, from the direction of the stone, by the Mediterranean with mulberry plants, myrtle, wild rosemary, prickly pear plants, the blue sky that blends with the color of the sea, and the charming contrast between old buildings in inland towns and villages and farmhouses.

Land of wine, olive oil, pizzica, minimalist architecture, colors of earth and sea, the pleasure of things more simple and pure.

Spending time in Salento is a unique experience: I call it lifestyle, a hug that involves all the senses, a special emotion similar to a lyrical song that empties into a real love for this land.

And this is the Salento we love our guests to discover: the authentic one, made of things and real people in a series of places, culture, experiences, feelings, stories. If you are lucky enough to spend time in Puglia, indulge in the Salento, immerse yourself in the lifestyle, breathe its pure energy and full light. The answer is in the wind, in the beauty of its places, in the warmth of the people.

I look forward to seeing you in Puglia, to tell you in person more magnificent stories of this fascinating land.

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♥ Grazie Ylenia, my personal travel designer and Puglia Travel Architect extraordinaire! ♥

♦ Ylenia and I Invite YOU to Join Us for a Truly Unique Experience in Puglia ♦

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