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PARLO ITALIANO? COME DICE - SUN, SEA AND ANCIENT CULTURE Learn Italian in Italy's Puglia Region

Where else best to learn Italian than in Italy. And while learning the language why not soak in culture, art, history and some serious Adriatic sun. The School of Italian Language and Culture in South Italy, “Otranto nel Mondo” (Ortanto in the World) is located in the city of Ortanto, the eastern most city in Italy on the Salento Peninsula in the Puglia (Apulia) region. Associated with the Perugia University for Foreign Students the school offers a variety of Italian language courses from short tourist trip refreshers to full CELI and CILS certificate courses.

With a history dating back to the times of the Trojan War and Hannibal the coastal town of Otranto is situated on the heel of Italy’s “boot” in the province of Lecce about 50 km from the city known as The Florence of the South. While conveniently on the narrowest passage of water between the Adriatic and Ionian Sea, the Straight of Otranto, where Greece and Corfu are a short ferry ride away, the city’s harbor was not large enough to be a major port so has remained a quant and beautiful village “The City of Art”.

The region has been controlled by a succession of rulers from the Greeks, the Romans, Turks, Germans, Spanish and French and offers a rich mix of it’s cultural past. Citzens here still pray in the Basilica on the tombs of 800 killed by the Turks in the sack of the city in 1480 and the castle which dominates the town, primarily built by Emperor Frederick II and later by the King Alfonso of Aragon was the inspiration for literature's first acknowledged gothic novel, the haunting “The Castle of Otranto” by England’s Horace Walpole.

The region around Otranto is ripe for exploring. Puglia is a well known wine region. Lecce is known for its unique pink shade of sandstone which has fostered a distinct style of Baroque architecture with many important monuments, churches and palaces in that style along with its Roman Amphitheater and the Column marking the end of the Appian Way. To the south of Ortantro lie the white sea cliffs which mark southeastern extreme of Italy at Santa Maria di Leuca. © Bargain Travel Europe

Italian School of Language and Culture in South Italy
Otranto nel Mondo

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Lecce Tourism

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SEE ALSO:

FORTIFIED PORTO ERCOLE

ROME IN RUINS - A Walking Tour

STONE AND GRAPES: THE CASTLES OF TRENTINO

A TASTE OF WINE AND THE DUKES OF BURGUNDY
THE ROUTE DES GRAND CRUS - DIJON, FRANCE

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