Departure and arrival at Brindisi airport in the late morning. Meeting with the driver and the guide, then transfer.

Stop at Alezio for an exclusive visit to a private residence: Casino Doxi Stracca. Set in a lush historic garden, it is an imposing eighteenth-century aristocratic house that welcomes its guests with a refined, genuine atmosphere. Expertly restored, it combines the timeless charm of a historic residence with an extraordinary wealth of original details, a refined artistic taste and the discreet comfort of contemporary luxury.

We then continue to Santa Maria di Leuca. Leuca, the Caput Mundi of Salento, is the furthest point of this strip of land washed by two seas, the Adriatic and the Ionian. Enclosed between two natural rocky headlands, Punta Meliso to the east and Punta Ristola to the west, it has a striking coastline full of rocky hollows and an impressive range of colours in the water. On the heights of its first settlement, on the promontory where a temple to the goddess Minerva stood in antiquity, we now find the Sanctuary of Santa Maria De Finibus Terrae, a place of pilgrimage, and not far away the Lighthouse, luminous and majestic, a landmark for sailors and dear to those who seek shelter.

Visit to Villa Carparelli, with a lush and very unusual terraced garden and a Basilian cave. The original layout of the Masseria, dating from the fifteenth century and historically linked to the Zevallos family, has come down to us with all its original charm intact; in its earliest days the Masseria was the centre of rural life, a beating heart in the landscape of the countryside and of the people who lived there. Light lunch in the exclusive setting of the Villa, where the owner, Maria Luisa Carparelli, will be our special guest.

We then head back towards Lecce with a stop to visit an exclusive private garden in Gagliano di Leuca, by kind arrangement of Mrs Maria Luisa Carparelli.

Afterwards, transfer to Lecce and check-in at the 8 Più Hotel****. Dinner and overnight stay at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Meeting with the driver and the guide, who will lead us to discover the most evocative corners of the city.

In the company of Dr Fabio Ippolito, of the Ville e Giardini di Puglia Association, we will discover the garden of Villa Reale, named after its present owners, who created this fascinating park designed in the 1930s by Pietro Porcinai, then a landscape architect at the very start of his career and not yet famous.

Next, a visit to the Garden of Palazzo Giaconà, one of the most renowned palaces in Lecce. The history of this imposing building began in the sixteenth century, on the initiative of Monsignor Angelo Giaconia, Bishop of Castro, who built his residence close to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the convent of the Minim friars of St Francis of Paola and the city's mighty walls. Over the centuries it was enlarged several times as it passed from owner to owner. Some of the noble families of Lecce and of southern Italy lived here: the Giaconia, the de' Prioli, the Carignani, the Lopez y Royo, the Castriota Scanderbeg, the Tresca and the Lubelli. Each of them embellished the walls and the interiors with portals and bas-reliefs in Lecce stone, frescoes and painted decoration. But it was a humble blind woman, Anna Antonacci, who gave the building its most precious gift: in 1906 she founded here the Provincial Institute for the Blind, for the education and instruction of blind children.

Free time for lunch at leisure.

In the afternoon we will visit the beautiful Palazzo Tamborino Cezzi. Originally built in the 1500s, it has one of the finest secret gardens in the historic centre of Lecce: enclosed by walls and sheltered by bamboo canes, among immense bougainvillea climbers, with a rose garden and a small orange grove, a quiet green oasis hidden behind the imposing façade of the palace.

Return to the hotel.

Dinner at Palazzo Famularo. The house is a veritable museum of old family memories. This prestigious residence, one of the most spectacular in all of Salento, has had several owners since 1619, the first being the Marquis Girolamo Montenegro. Through one of the building's earliest doorways you reach a large neoclassical atrium. In the middle of the portico an entrance leads to the large garden at the rear, where an impressive Ficus Magnolioides can be admired. An oval staircase leads up to the terrace above. The piano nobile is a treasure chest of rare beauty, preserved in excellent condition to this day thanks to the care of the Famularo family, the palace's current owners. The owner, Gabriella Famularo, will be our special guest.

Afterwards, return to the hotel for the overnight stay.

Breakfast and meeting with the driver and the guide.

We will reach the botanical garden of La Cutura, a true paradise of stone where the order that reigns never feels artificial. La Cutura, once an old country estate built in the classic rural style of the late nineteenth century, is today a renowned botanical garden covering 35 hectares and home to one of the richest collections of rare, succulent and tropical plants. A paradise born from stone (Cutura, from “cute”, the dialect word for stone), unique in Italy, rich in flora, a place of knowledge and of recreation where pleasure and nature blend in perfect harmony, in a triumph of scents and colours.

Following a botanical route along avenues of roses, gardens of aromatic plants and beds of Mediterranean and medicinal species, past the pond of papyrus and water lilies, the rock garden, the citrus grove and the holm-oak wood, you reach an imposing greenhouse of one thousand square metres where over 2,000 specimens of succulents and cacti of various origins are gathered and catalogued, precious for their rarity, type and size.

Next, a visit to the weaving workshop at the Fondazione Le Costantine in Casamassella. The “Cantando e Amando” weaving workshop, opened in 2002, carries on the will and the love of Donna Giulia Starace and, before her, of her mother Donna Carolina De Viti De Marco, who always wished to raise the women of Casamassella both economically and spiritually. Ahead of their time and with great entrepreneurial spirit, they turned an old and precious tradition, with its roots deep in the past, into an organised activity capable of generating income and developing the area. The workshop produces textiles woven on old four-shaft wooden looms, using natural raw materials such as cotton, linen, wool, silk and cashmere. Lunch included at the Foundation's restaurant.

In the afternoon, transfer to Otranto for a guided walk through the town, whose origins go back to prehistoric times and which for centuries was the gateway to the East. Afterwards, return to the hotel in Lecce.

In the evening, visit to Palazzo Morisco-de' Secly-Galante, behind Piazza Duomo, on one of the most important Roman-era streets of the city. In the 1950s Professor Nicola Galante, de' Secly's son-in-law, restored the entire complex. Of particular importance is the historic garden, laid out on several levels and planted with fine trees, overlooking the Roman theatre. In this aristocratic residence we will be welcomed by its owner, Rossella Galante Arditi Di Castelvetere. Dinner in the exclusive setting of the palace. Return to the hotel for the overnight stay.

Breakfast and meeting with the driver and the guide.

Transfer to Massafra to visit the Tenuta di Amastuola, the work of the renowned landscape architect Fernando Caruncho, who redesigned the entire landscape, recovering as many as 1,500 centuries-old olive trees, transplanted and saved from neglect or from being turned into firewood, and placing them along the historic lanes of the Masseria as well as in groups within the 100-hectare vineyard, whose rows are laid out in waves some 3 km long.

At the end of the visit, lunch included at the estate.

Transfer to the airport and return journey.