Discover Romantic Salento

One drives up the steep hillside of Marina Serra di Tricase and arrives at the four white pajare sitting high on the cliff. These houses enjoy sweeping views overlooking the Mediterranean vegetation and the land leading down to the open sea. The fact that they face Greece is reflected in their white and blue colours, simple style and names: Corfu, Paxos, Cefalonia and Zante.

Each pajara is an independent unit, connected to the others by small paths, stairs and terraces which weave through the local vegetation. All have been recently renovated with enormous taste, respecting the local architecture, traditions and decoration. Each unit has a large double bedroom with its own bathroom, a very small kitchen and its own individual terrace with table and chairs. All houses have a similar layout and rustic, simple, country decoration with carefully selected details, local handicrafts and beautiful fabrics. The houses differ in size. The pajare share a common laundry area.

Pajare, like the Trulli found farther north in Puglia, were originally used by Salentini farmers to shelter them from the elements when in the fields as well as a storage area for their tools. Even though their original use was never as a house, it has become very fashionable in recent years to renovate and convert them into homes.