Santa Cesarea Terme

Sea Town Salento, Italy

A large cliff overlooking the sea, overlooking the Canale d'Otranto, elegant houses that seem to make it a village of other times. The fame of Santa Cesarea Terme is primarily due to its thermal waters, but also to the magnificent stretch of coast it overlooks, with a particularly beautiful cliff, so much so that for lovers of the genre it is one of the most interesting tourist destinations not only of the province of Lecce, but of the whole Puglia.

Among the houses, the most important is undoubtedly Villa Sticchi, a building built in 1885 with Moorish lines, clearly visible along the coast with its large dome, above the spa. Also noteworthy is the beautiful Villa Raffaella, built on the main avenue in the mid-nineteenth century as the summer residence of Baroness Raffaella Lubelli. On the other hand, in the upper part of the town, it is possible to take an enchanting road immersed in the vegetation and then take walks through the Aleppo pine woods and from here reach the Belvedere from which you can admire the whole coast of Southern Salento up to Santa Mary of Leuca. Santa Cesarea Terme develops "vertically" on several different levels. In the lower part, we find the thermal baths and the relative establishment, as well as the rocky coast from which access to the sea is possible in some stretches. Halfway up the coast stands the main town consisting of a single main road, surrounded by the villas mentioned above. In the highest part, there are other buildings, the fourteenth-century Mother Church of the Sacred Heart and even higher up the winding streets that lead to the highest part of the hill. Its particular "layered" conformation is also evident from the presence of characteristics and numerous stairways that also allow pedestrians to reach the different levels of the town without necessarily having to use the car.