“Shores of Light” a different way to experience Puglia and Salento

In 2015 Israeli film director and writer Yael Katzir released “Shores of Light”, a poignant, untold story of warmth and compassion.

From 1945 to the end of 1947 thousands of Jewish refugees, survivors of the Shoah, pass through Salento where for the first time, after years of suffering and tragedies, they find a human and warm hospitality.

The film tells how they were we welcomed by the poor local Italians when they arrived in the Italian region of Puglia on their way to the land of Israel.

Reception camps were set up for Jewish refugees managed by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, known as "UNRRA". For this purpose, schools, barracks, public buildings, houses or villas were requisitioned in Tricase, Santa Caterina di Nardò, Santa Maria di Leuca and Santa Cesarea Terme and in these camps, nursery schools, schools, canteens, libraries were soon built and commercial activities, post offices and places of prayer were set up.

A new life began again: new friendships, new loves, new families were born and grew up in an atmosphere, albeit poor and temporary, but serene.

In the end, more than forty thousand Jews passed through the fields of Salento before starting a new life in Palestine and hundreds of children were born.

The film follows the story of three Israeli women who were born there, in Santa Maria di Leuca (1946) and once grown- up, in their sixties they decide to discover the footprints left by their parents.

This tour takes you to the places of the film, but also connects an almost lost local memory to the affection that a people, at that time “a Community in waiting” still feels for those who have shown friendship and kindness to those who experienced too many horrors.

Our Tour takes in the beauty of this generous region, worldwide wellknown for art, culture, landscapes, excellent food & wine.

The white City of Ostuni, Manduria with its ancient Jewish quarter, Santa Maria al Bagno - Gallipoli – Nardò the villages home for the refugees, the Museum of Memories, the noble baroque Lecce and its Jewish Museum, Galatina birth place of Galatino, an eminent Hebraist and scholar of the Talmud and the Kabbalah, Santa Cesarea Terme - Tricase Porto - Santa Maria di Leuca boat discovery- Specchia – Otranto, the characteristic Alberobello, the mysterious Matera are all the amazing sites that the travelers will experience in this discovery journey through the memory of the past and the nowadays present.

We will remain at your disposal also for accommodation and experiences bookings .

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