They call it the city of the Imperiali, after the marquises who made it a small capital: their castle-palace rules Francavilla Fontana's Baroque centre, among twin churches and noble portals of upper Salento. But the town truly reveals itself in Holy Week: the "pappamusci", barefoot hooded confraternity brothers, walk the churches in silent pilgrimage, one of the South's most intense rites.
Among almonds, grapes and oil, the countryside remains the hinterland of a forthright table. Ostuni and the sea on one side, Lecce on the other: Francavilla is the Salento that doesn't perform.
The Francavilla Fontana guide
Near Francavilla Fontana
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
