Geography

The peninsula of Salento is ideally delimited with the so called " Messapic threshold" to the North, a depression going through the line Taranto-Ostuni and which separates the peninsula from Murge. Its ideal borders are:

• Taranto, in the homonymous province;
• Pilone, in the territory of Ostuni in the province of Brindisi;
• Santa Maria di Leuca, in the province of Lecce, which represents the most Southern city of Apulia.

Therefore, it represents the most Oriental zone of Italy and includes Punta Palascia or Capo d'Otranto, which is the most Oriental point of the peninsula. According to nautical agreement, from Punta Palascia starts the ideal line which separates the Ionic sea from the Adriatic sea. Salento has a flat configuration where you can see the first elevations of Taranto's Murge to North-West, Lecce's Tavoliere (a sort of plain) at the centre and the waves of Salento's Serre (a sort of little hills) to the South. From the pedologic point of vue, this system of the landscape can be divided into three undersystem more homogeneous:

East Salento. It includes the lands of inferior Murge until Tavoliere of Lecce, then the area around the city of Lecce. Its morphology is almost totally flat or a little undulating, while it is more animated in the areas on the Murge. North-West Salento. It includes the areas between the Piana Brindisina and the Ionic Arch of Taranto. Its morphology is almost undulating. Southern Salento. It includes the areas with the characteristic Serre of Salento. Its morphology variates from a little undulating to more undulating, with fvery few flat areas. The slopes on this territory can be steeps or changing into scarps.