PUGLIA, THE AMAZING UNDISCOVERED ITALIAN REGION!

In the foreign collective unconscious, Italy is mainly recognized  for a few well known places , like Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Naples, etc., but,  surprisingly, there are lots of other beautiful undiscovered places, where you can actually smell, feel the real Italy, where life is slower and less chaotic than the above mentioned big cities. Today, I'm going to discover the amazing Puglia Region, in the south east of Italy, also known as the "heel of the boot", to all of you. I think that Lecce, the city where I live, and its province (http://awaitingtable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Map-of-Italy-wi...) has got lots of potentials (in terms of movies making too; not accidentally some Italian and foreign productions for TV and cinema have been made here), as you can see below. This also because Apulia Film Commission (http://en.apuliafilmcommission.it/) guarantees funds and tax credits. The musical "Holiday" produced by Eagle Pictures has been recently filmed in a town close to Lecce , just like the movie Walking on sunshine (http://arialuxuryapulia.com/walking-sunshine-shot-puglia/) and Point Break 2 ( http://en.apuliafilmcommission.it/senza-categoria/point-break-2015). Last september a big Chinese production has been here too: http://www.ilpaesenuovo.it/2016/09/20/produzione-cinematografica-ci... . Yet, several investments in alternative energies have been made in my area (solar panels, sails/vanes, biomass, photovoltaic). Lecce was selected in 2010 by Lonely Planet release as one of the top 10 places to be visited (http://sispropertyandtourism.blogspot.com/2009/11/one-of-top-10-cit...) and Salento (known as Peninsula Salentina) is the peninsula where my city is located (incidentally, it's been the top touristic destination in the last 4 years, in Italy). Furthermore, Puglia Region (globally also known as Apulia), the Peninsula Salentine specifically, has received more than 5M registered tourists during last year. So, to arouse your curiosity and to show you my roots, I sincerely invite you to visit my place, although  "virtually" only, at the moment, by checking the following links: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2004/aug/21/italy.salento 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Q5q0k293U&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypHUuwOS7T4&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iItKesJXwZ0&feature=related

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/travel/36-hours-in-lecce-italy.ht...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZrSqW2-p2M
http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/bari/il-barocco-visto-dall-alto... (overview of the city from a drone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izYIfQ3xdEs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyKfuBG5NFE&feature=related
http://www.google.com/images?q=salento%20beaches&oe=utf-8&r...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptLX5vGUsqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQmhhYavtM
http://www.laterradipuglia.it/EN/argument/lecce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jrfGt-uWqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdHxCWsu1c8&feature=PlayList&...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtJY8kp2WN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA1n1qbKSmE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_P1weKXhi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR_OpSytAOQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK0XHbMfX78&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPoXB6JYTAQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs84q8jCcAg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQmhhYavtM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMDa7gNccxs 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jryWN38HfQ&feature=related 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5IIiYBcy3k&feature=related 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXabvZzSDNI 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZhPAgJXAxc&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo-e8TWr0RE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1S5DyYpVUg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYwlDGq_Fx4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A8RM8F-2jE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r9jaXaXt8I

http://www.google.it/images?q=porto+selvaggio&oe=utf-8&rls=...
http://www.dreamhomesinpuglia.com/porto_selvaggio_nature_reserve.aspx 
...just to emphasize the topic a bit more, I'd like to inform you that even the Academy award-winning American director Francis Ford Coppola has bought a house (our so-called "masseria", http://www.dreamhomesinpuglia.com/masseria.aspx) in my land, at Ugento (one of most attractive location), precisely,  just like  Helen Mirren (Oscar winning actress for "The Queen") who bought a 500-year-old "masseria" in Tiggiano, not far from Lecce and Ugento. Lately, Meryl Streep too has bought a house in my province, in Tricase Porto town specifically (http://www.leonardo.tv/articolo/meryl-streep-in-salento-casa-tricas...).
Other celebrities have shown interest in my place as indicated in this page: http://arialuxuryapulia.com/celebrities-puglia/ (Richard Gere filming a commercial in a town close to my city: http://www.thebridalday.com/in-salento-with-richard-gere/)
OUR TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND DANCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEVB_QAtgwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz30vbYxTKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf9avbE1nTo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp37sau_mPQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uetIRau-Vlo&feature=related
http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=12039
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwI4XvkHKR4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugRCjLtuPFA
OUR TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFTS AND WORKSHOPS
http://www.madeinitaly.tv/4383/langswitch_lang/en/
http://www.discoversalento.org/handicraft.html
http://www.salentoalacarte.it/english/papier_mache.htm
http://www.lecceweekendbreak.net/en/discovering-lecce/traditional-a...
OUR CUISINE
http://cookingexperience.wix.com/cookingexperience-it and http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/travel/in-lecce-making-magic-with...
It's also important to know that Lecce has been candidated for being the European Culture Capital in 2019:
http://www.lecce2019.it/2019/comitato.php?id=4&setLanguage=eng
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZrSqW2-p2M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jg36KTTnvE (Airan Berg, the artistical director)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8gDH_k86aY
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=336sbnvQrqA
and the University of Salento is globally known to have one of the top NanoTechnologies Laboratory - NNL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Salento and http://spidme.nanophysics.it/public/index.php?page=nnl---lecce)
Here, you can find more info about the whole Puglia (Apulia) Region, where other locations are also touristically attractive:
http://www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/apulia.html
http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/hp/en
http://www.browsingitaly.com/puglia/puglia-time-head-heel-italys-bo...
http://www.apuliaslowcoast.it/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpLroqMmtcU
olive harvest: http://www.yltourcongressi.it/news.php?id=54 and grape harvest http://www.apuliapromotion.com/en/offerta/97/  experience september/october
Last september, the Indian tycoon Pramod Agarwal (http://moneytometal.org/index.php/Pramod_Agarwal)  celebrated his daughter's wedding in my Region (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11072949/Row...) at this amazing facility: http://borgoegnazia.com/
Pls also consider that Alison deighton (married to former London 2012 supremo and now Treasury Minister Paul Deighton) in partnership with the American Oil tycoon Ian Taylor are investing in this amazing place: https://www.google.it/search?client=firefox-a&hs=AYg&rls=or... , located in Lecce province, to build a "green" resort at zero impact on the environment (http://www.galatina2000.it/images/stories/2014/09/Oasi_Sarparea.jpg).

I hope you enjoyed the virtual trip and felt like coming and discovering the beauties of my place directly: the perfect place for shooting films (amazing locations), chill out and settle down far from the chaos and frenzy of the big cities.

At last, for any kind of assistance/support, you might need, pls visit my personal website: www.apuliaforbusiness.com

Thanks for your patience and for your attention, anyway!

Stefano Valente